God of whose truth being a thing altogether infallible it were a wicked matter to doubt that wee doe believe also Christ the Sonne of God as when we doe believe his Word to be the Word of the onely begotten Sonne of God sent unto us from his Father for Christ saith He that believeth in me shall have life everlasting John 6.40 c. Vers 29. 1 John 3.23 this is the worke of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent To believe him as Christ the anoynted of God is to believe him in all poynts his words his actions and not to doubt any whit of any his sayings wee should not onely believe of God and God but also in God and to believe in God is to direct all our hope unto God and with sure confidence and trust to depend upon his goodnesse This third degree of fayth riseth upon the first two for whosoever doe believe of God and believeth God also aright cannot choose but assuredly and with all his heart depend upon the truth and goodnesse of his promise for otherwise it is no Christian fayth but a false fayth which is not faith but opinion John 14.1 11 12. for Christ saith unto his Disciples Let not your hearts be troubled yee believe in God believe also in me Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me Verely verely I say unto you hâ—e that believeth on me the workes that I doe the same shall he doe also By which words he requireth beliefe and trust in him aswell as in God the Father This Christian fayth is onely true and necessary to the obtayning of everlasting salvation but we must understand that the nature and disposition of God is such that no unfaithfull person can please him for how should the unfaithfull person please him who is the most true and faythfull of all thereupon commeth that saying to the Hebrews Heb. 11.6 that without faith it is impossible to please God Therefore no man can be blessed without fayth for how can hee be blessed which pleaseth not God but such that have no care for their everlasting salvation they be not compelled by any necessity to believe for they may perish without faith But they that doe desire to be saved must of necessity thinke upon faith John 3.16 without the which they cannot be saved Our Saviour sayd that God so lâ—ved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne to that end intent and purpose that whosoever doe believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life It is also necessary for every Christian man to know that Christ the Sonne of God is sent into this world from the father to redeeme and save sinners Christ saith This is everlasting life to know God the Father John 17. and Iesus Christ the Sonne whom he hath sent This knowledge is so incomprehensible to mans understanding that it seemeth unto him meere foolishnesse because the wisdome of the world is not capable to comprehend it therefore it is necessary that it be attayned by fayth by the power of the spirit By this mee know that Christ is the Sonne of God John 6.29 Wee ought likewise to believe all those things which doe concerne the resurrection the ascension the Priesthood and everlasting Kingdome of Christ and that he sitteth and ruleth at the right hand of his Father and for his comming againe to judge with the rising to judgement and life everlasting to come all which matters cannot be comprehended without faith Rom. 4 5 6. chap. Wee are required also of necessity to believe those things which the holy Spirit doth worke in our hearts to our salvation when as Christ doth forgive us our sinnes through fayth in his blood and so doth justifie us and when hee by his grace makes us the children of God by adoption 1 John 1 c. Acts 15. Gal. 5. Rom. 10. 1 Pet. 5. Rom. 5. Heb. 10. when hee doth purifie our hearts and maketh us able to doe good workes and to love our Christian brethren when hee stirreth us up by godly motions to call upon our Father by prayer to withstand Satan to be constant and persevere also in troubles all those things bee so wrought in the Elect of God by the vertue of the grace of Christ that none of them can be done in any man unlesse he hath Christian fayth this is a great poynt of wisdome in man to know from whence these gifts doe come This consideration doth admonish us that they which doe lacke true fayth must cry unto him who doth only worke the same in our hearts by the operation of his holy Spirit Faith is the gift of God and we doe receive it into the soule by the instrument of the body for so wonderfull great is the grace and the lovingnesse of God toward us that hee doth not only promise everlasting life and salvation unto us wretched sinners if we doe believe in him but hee doth also give them this gift that they may believe in him therefore it is a cleare matter that we have nothing in our flesh whereof we may glory Let them therefore which have but a weake and a small fayth pray with the Apostle Lord increase our faith Let them which bee strong in fayth acknowledge the gift of God and magnifie his grace if they doe see any that doe lacke the same gift of fayth let them pray to God for them the authour and giver of fayth that hee will vouchsafe to give them also the spirit of fayth It is manifest that true fayth is the gift of God How Gods gifts be given and Gods gifts are bestowed two manner of wayes some hee gives immediately without any ministry or helpe of man as the soule life understanding will appetite and those things which doe helpe towards the sustentation of our life love hatred feare of evill power to see to heare to smel to taste and to touch and those outward things as the Sunne Moone light day night aire summer and winter c. and some things the attained by the meanes of mans ministery and industry as a secondary meanes as the body the nutriment of the body corne bread wine clothes and such other like yea civill governement publique quiet by true justice in the magistrate arts sciences tongues usage and experience of things Againe some things be so given of God that hee which receiveth them doth not perceive that he receiveth them as when the soule is joyned to the body and life put into it and some things are received with perceivance of mans understanding as those things be which are given to men of ripe and good yeers and they may be perceived either in body as corporall gifts either in spirit as spiritual gifts Whether faith be given without measure Consequently we must consider also that all and singular gifts of God as well corporall as spirituall whether that they be given
eternall life and wee are sure and believe that thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God and Christ said unto them which believed in him John 8. if you abide in my word you be verily my Disciples and you shall know the truth thereof commeth that assurednesse of faith Note whereof mention is made before In Gods case and Religion all things are blind and doubtfull to mans naturall reason but unto faith they be certaine and cleare and thereby we know that wee be the children of God faith doth take hold of the gifts of God which we doe request of him in prayer the attainment of the which cannot be hoped for nor trusted upon without wee aske in fayth James 1.6 wherefore Saint Iames saith Let him aske in faith doubting nothing for hee that is doubting and wavering is like a wave of the Sea tost to and fâ—owith the wind and carried with violence And Christ sayth Verily I say unto you Mark 11.23 24 whatsoever you request in your prayers believe that you shall obtaine it and it shall befall unto you Againe fayth doth worke in him that is justified a peaceable quiet good and contented conscience towards God through Christ so the Apostle testifieth saying Therefore being justified by faith Rom. 5. we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ without this fayth it is impossible that wee should have a quiet conscience towards God for as is sayd before that by fayth wee doe apprehend the grace of reconcilement and justification purchased for us in the blood of Christ fayth must needs therefore worke in us the invocation adoration Rom. 10. and worship of him whom wee doe believe in How shall they call upon him sayth the Apostle in whom they have not believed and the blind man which our Saviour made to see when he had sayd Lord I doe believe John 9.38 The confessiâ—n of truth hee worshipped him immediately in whom he beleeved For by fayth wee doe confesse the truth that is once beleeved and knowne of us So the Apostle doth joyne fayth and confession together for to beleeve with the heart justifieth and to acknowledge with the mouth maketh a man safe having the selfe-same spirit of faith At the poynt of death wee doe by fayth commend our soules and spirit unto the Lord. So did the thiefe upon the Crosse Math. 27. Acts 7.59 and Saint Stephen also when he was stone this is the last worke of faith towards God for after the yeelding up of the Spirit once there is no longer place nor use of faith These bee therefore the workes of fayth towards God first the love of God a good conscience towards our neighbour hope of things to come a boldnesse to repaire by prayer to the Throne of grace invocation adoration and worship confession of the truth obedience perseverance and the yeelding up of the Spirit to goe immediately unto God the faithfull are comforted in the Lord by the benefit of fayth whereupon Christ also when hee admonished his Disciples from whence they should seeke their comfort in adversity he said John 14.1 c. Let not your hearts be troubled believe in God believe also in me for there is in none greater goodnesse in none greater mercy in none greater knowledge of those things wherewith all our hearts be tormented in none more knowledge and power to helpe and ayde then is in God himselfe 2 Cor. 1.3 so that he is justly called the father of mercies and God of all comfort For he that is faythfull doth apply himselfe to the goodnesse of God and by it wee doe perceive the efficacy and sence thereof and it bringeth comfort unto the troubled heart By fayth wee doe believe the promises of grace and doe by it embrace those things which be spoken of God in his word fayth doth also mortifie the concupiscence of the flesh and maketh a mans mind humble and lowly and worketh many other notable matters in the hearts of the beleevers This excellent and rare jewell is faith the excellence whereof is surpassing precious wherewith we must of necessity be endued to become perfect men Heb. 11. Saint Paul sayth that Faith is the ground of things hoped for and the evidence of things which are not seene This is a speciall jewell and happy is the man that hath it but in quantity comparable to a graine of Mustard seed it is the ground of things hoped for as if it were sayd whatsoever crosse or calamity vexeth us if wee hope for reliefe and ease wee must ground it upon fayth otherwise our hope is no hope It is the evidence of things not seene Note it is the patefaction or laying open as it were of the very thing though farre from our sight which is expected and longed for in hope the thing hoped for through it is as it were Eph. 1. evidently seene and layd before our eyes wee may upon this ground build so certaine a foundation of hope of the joyes to come as if we were setled in Heaven it selfe with Christ It is indeed the assurance of all our comforts in the promises of God and whensoever wee lay this evidence before the celestiall Judge by prayers for therein it appeareth to be fayth or not to be he cannot but allow it so current lawfull and effectuall as that whatsoever wee aske though wee see nothing to answere our hope yet wee may assure our selves that wee shall obtaine our desires at such time and in such sort as shall bee most fittest for our necessities in so much as wee may be bold to say wee are already partakers of that we looke for before it come Psa 34.8 9 10. because comming it will come and our fayth which is the ground and the evidence of things hoped for shall not be in vaine and therefore in what danger so ever we are we must open this evidence even our fayth unto the Almighty in humble suit and hearty prayer that as his promises are manifold for the releefe of his children and his meanes infinite so will he accept of our faith Psal 91. wherein wee stand assured that hee is God al-sufficient full of mercy and truth able and willing to grant what we aske and first we must consider that there is no dissembling with God neyther can wee bragge of this rare jewell and yet bring forth the fruits of infidelity which then appeareth when wee shew our selves impatient at the chastisements and corrections of the Lord and when we grudge to stay the Lords leasure for helpe and when leaving the meanes commanded by God wee runne to worldly and forbidden meanes these things can we not shroud nor cloake under any colour or pretence for hee that searcheth the heart findeth every dissimulation Acts 5. he found out Ananias and Saphyra in their hypocrisie and gave them the reward of death because they would seeme to have faith and dissembled Learne of the
that which is infallibly promised in Scripture to those that believe and walke in the 〈◊〉 of the Lord but when we come unto the future happinesse promised unto us then shall wee have full security for in this life Religion and feare are coupled together neither can the one be without the other therefore thinke upon the grievous spots of thy sins and feare him that according to justice will judge thee for the same What are the afflictions of the godly but bitter arrowes sent from the sweet hand of God for their correction many that escape unpunished in this life God thinkes them unworthy of punishment whom notwithstanding he reprobateth for ever Outward felicity is often times a signe of eternall damnation nothing is more unhappy than the happinesse of sinners and nothing more miserable then hee that knowes no misery Augustin Whatsoever thou beholdest with thine eyes thou seest cause of griefe which duly considered are remedies against security Behold God above whom we have offended thinke upon hell beneath which we have deserved thinke upon the sin behinde the which wee have committed thinke upon the judgement before which wee dread and stand in feare of thinke upon the conscience within the which wee have defiled and thinke upon the world without which wee have too much loved consider whence thou camest and be ashamed consider what thou art and be sorrowfull consider whither thou goest and tremble Let a man therefore lament and grieve and shake off all security lest in the just and secret judgement of God hee be forsaken and left in the power of the divell to be destroyed if thou hast grace so delight thy selfe in it and acknowledge it to be the gift of God and that thou dost not possesse it by any hereditary righteousnesse of thine owne Security is a pernicious sin Happy shalt thou be if thou labourest with all care and diligence to avoid security the mother of all evill God will not forsake thee but take heed thou dost not forsake him God hath given thee his grace pray thou earnestly unto him that he would also give thee perseverance in that grace God bids thee be certaine of thy salvation but he bids thee not be secure therefore thou must fight valiantly 2 Tim. 4.7 8. that thou maist at length triumph gloriously thy flesh within thee fighteth against thee and the enemy the neerer he is the more to be feared the world about thee fighteth against thee and the greater the enemy is the more to be feared the divell about thee fighteth against thee and the more potent the enemy is the more to be feared through the power of God feare not to encounter with these enemies through the power divine thou shalt be enabled to obtaine the victory but thou canst not overcome these so great and potent enemies by security but by assiduity in fighting then doe the enemies most gather their forces together when they seeme to grant truce they are vigilant and watchfull and thou sleepy and sluggish they make themselves ready to assault and hurt thee make thou thy selfe ready therefore to resist Many faint by the way and never come home into their countrey Deut. 1.35 how many Israelites did there die in the wildernesse and never came to the promised Land of Canaan how many spirituall sonnes of Abraham doe perish in the wildernesse of this world and never come to enjoy the promised inheritance of the Celestiall Canaan Let it be therefore our onely desire to attaine to the glory which is in heaven wee live in security as we were past the snare of death and the day of Judgement Matth. 24.44 Christ saith he will come to judgement at such an houre that wee thinke not of this saith Truth it selfe And againe he repeats it heare and feare for the Lord will come at an houre wee thinke â—o of Wee have therefore great cause to feare that we come not to judgement unprovided for how shall we be able to endure the strict examination at the day of judgement Seeing we cannot recover for ever that which is lost in this one moment in the shortnesse of this one moment judgement shall passe either to mercy or condemnation what we shall be for all eternity in this one moment life and death damnation and salvation punishment and eternall glory shall be appointed to every one Lord thou that hast given us grace to that which is good give us also grace to persevere in that goodnesse least wee fall into the ensuing danger prepared for the reprobates and the ungodly which is hell and damnation and the torments thereof Of the knowledge of mans corruption and state of his misery in this world and the miserable state and condition in the life to come without we be renovated by Christ which Lord God grant us all grace so to be O Wretched man where shall I begin to describe thy endlesse miseries who art condemnable as soone as conceived lyable to eternall death before thou wast born to a temporall life A miserable change hapned to all posterities by the fall of Adam A beginning indeed I finde but no end of thy miseries for when Adam and Eve being created after Gods owne Image and placed in paradise that they and their posterity might live in happy and blessed estate of life immortall having dominion and rule of all earthly creatures and onely restrained from the fruit of one tree as a signe of their obedient subjection to their Almighty Creator though God forbad them this one small thing under the penalty of eternall death yet they believed the divels word before the Word of God making God as much as in them lay a lyar and so being unthankefull for all his benefits which God bestowed upon them they became male-content with their present state as if God had dealt enviously or niggardly with them and believed that the divell would make them partakers of farre more glorious things then ever God had bestowed upon them and in their pride they fell into rebellion and committed high treason against the most high Almighty and disdaining to be Gods subjects they affected most blasphemously to be gods themselves equall unto God their maker hence till they repented loosing Gods Image they became like unto the Divell and so all their posterity like a traiterous brood whilst they remained impenitent like them Math. 13.42 are subject in this life to all cursed miseries and in the life to come to everlasting fire and damnation prepared for the divell and his angels Consider therefore thou faithfull soule the miserable condition of man and thou shalt easily avoyd all temptations man is vile in his ingresse miserable in his progresse and lamentable in his egresse he is assaulted by divels provoked by tentations allured by delights cast down by tribulations entangled by accusations bestripped of vertues snared in all evill customes and drowned in all manner of vices Lay aside then for a while thy
truth thereof which they doe also which doe fondly devise it to bee conceived of the nature and substance of the holy Spirit for like as Christ said unto Nicodemus Iohn 3. Tâ—e same which is borne of the fl sh is flesh and the same which is borne of the Spirit is Spirit If Christ be borne of the substance of the holy Spirit and not of the substance of the Virgins flesh it followeth he is a Spirit and not flesh for the substance of any thing that is borne is most rightly deemed to be of the substance of it from whence it is hath his beginning Adam was called earthly because hee was taken out of the earth Thou art earthly saith God Gen 3.19 and shalt returne into earth againe But if we doe say Christ is a Spirit in as much as he is borne of the Virgin what doe wee else but deny that hee is man and so doe bring to nothing all his dispensation which hee tooke upon him in the flesh and withall the whole hope and certainety of our redemption which God forbid it appeareth clearer then the Sunne of the very birth of the flesh of Christ wrought by the holy Spirit by the power of the highest in the wombe of the Virgin and by the promises which went before and of those things which he suffered spake and did that he is true man yea the very sonne of man which can not be true unlesse hee hath the truth of our flesh It is very hard to finde out how the naturall child is conceived quickened nourished and growes in the mothers wombe of the seed of man after the accustomed course of nature much more how this unwonted and wonderfull incarnation of the word was perfected it passeth the compasse of mans understanding to yeeld a reason thereof Rom. 11.33 34. otherwise then was answered to the blessed Virgin her selfe by the Angell which is that it doth consist of the seed of man but of the vertue and operation of the holy Spirit for the Angell saith unto her The holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the highest stâ—ll shadow thee Which was conceived by the holy Spirit the blessed Virgin wondred saying shee had not touchâ—d a man how then should shee bring forth a child the Angell doth open the matter unto her that it shall not be by the accustomed course of nature by the seed of man Luke 1.26 c. but by the singular working of the vertue of God for the vertue and power of the highest is the holy Spirit wrought in the wombe of the Virgin and forming the sonne of man of her flesh blood and performing this incarnation of the word without any seed of man but the same man which the Virgin did beare was not onely man but through the conjunction of the word was both God and man And whereas it is holden by some Apollinaris Bishop of Laodicea Math. 26 38. Iohn 12.27 that the word tooke upon him flesh onely and not soule against such opinion marke what Christ said My soule is heavie even to death and in Iohn Now my soule is troubled By which words certainely he witnessed not onely that hee had a soule but such a soule also as was subject unto heavinesse and trouble which thing can in no wise be attributed unto the nature of the word in it selfe wherefore it must needs be understood of the soule of man which he tooke upon him Marke againe Luke 23.46 what Christ saith who speaking of his Spirit Father I commend my Spirit into thy hands and Jesus crying with a loud voyce Math. 27.50 gave up his Spirit These places cannot be understood as spoken of the Word of God nor of the holy Spirit but in any wise of the spirit of man which he tooke upon him By the consideration of these matters it is manifest Mans spirit is subject to passion and not Gods that the word is not so incarnated in the wombe of the Virgin that it tooke upon him either the bare flesh without the soule either the flesh and soule without the spirit of man but that this incarnation was so made that therein is comprehended both the soule and the spirit that is that the word tooke upon him the whole man As the soule is the life of man so is God the life of the soule with flesh spirit and soule of whence it commeth that some had rather call this conjunction of the word and flesh to be man rather then flesh for that that the fulnesse of the taking upon him of man or of mans nature is more expressed in the word of humanation then of incarnation Lastly is added also the cause of this incarnation the generall and summary cause is that mankind should be redeemed from sinne the Kingdome of Satan and everlasting condemnation and that he might abolish him by death which had the dominion of death that is the divell and to make them free which through feare of death were subject unto bondage for hee tooke not upon him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham Joh. 3.16 For God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life therefore the Apostle saith he ought to be made in all points like to his brethren For both he that doth sanctifiâ— Hebr. 2.11 and they which are sanctified be all of one Againe that he should be a mercifull and faithfull mediatour for his people Hebr. 2.17 concerning those matters which were to be wrought wiâ—h God the Father to cleanse the sinnes of the people which concerne our salvation Last of all he saith he was borne for us to the intent that hee which granted to us that we should be might grant to us also to continue in his favour and grace or rather to the intent that as we through the malice of the Divell fell from the state of innocency might be by his incarnation renovated againe by the comming of Christ unto men is that wee may returne againe unto God and putting off our old man sinne may put on the new man Jesus Christ and that like as wee dyed all in Adam so we may live in Christ be borne with Christ 1 Tim. 3.6 crucified buried and rise againe also with Christ to glory everlasting Of Christs Nativity LEt us withdraw our minds awhile from temporary things and let us contemplate the holy mysterie of the Lords Nativity â—al 4.5 the Sonne of God came downe from heaven unto us that by him wee might obtaine the adoption of children God made man that man may be made partaker of divine grace and nature his birth was pure and holy to sanctifie our impure and polluted nativity he is borne of a Virgin betrothed to an husband to honour both Virginity and Matrimony which was Gods institution he is borne in the darkenesse of the night Luk.
it seemes to be yet greater to take upon him to satisfie for the debt of man for the sinne of man and to redeem him when he had deserved evill and condemnation but it is more wonderful that God would become flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone Eph. 5.30 Be thankefull therefore O devout soule give praise unto God who created thee when thou wast not who redeemed thee from sinne and misery when for sinne thou wast condemned and who hath prepared for thee the eternall joyes of Heaven if by faith thou adhere to Christ and his righteousnesse which the Lord of his goodnesse give us grace evermore to doe Christ Iesus is the summe or compendium of the Gospell Christ the summe of the Gospell IN whose actions and holy sufferings the maine execution of the Gospell was onely and wholy finished for hee being the seale of the covenant of grace the covenant was onely promised but not performed untill Christ himselfe came in our nature who did first discharge our former debts Why the Gospell is called the new Testament we ought the justice of God before he did seale and ratifie the new covenant of the Gospell therefore is the Gospel called the new Testament of our Saviour Jesus Christ because the title and interest of salvation could not be derived on the children of God but by Christ the testator his sufferings and death in his humane nature It is also called the last will of Jesus Christ Why the last Testament because God hath fully determined that this Testament this covenant shall remaine unalterable to all posterity there being no purpose in God no power in man to alter repeale or change the forme of this covenant being determined by the whole Trinity from before all beginning to be the last refuge for sinnefull man and the onely and most safe meanes of their spirituall deliverance The Gospell is the last refuge for sinfull man it was also in the fulnesse of time perfectly finished by Christ as it was before determined in the Counsell of the Trinity and from this doctrine doth issue this foundation of Christian religion that the covenant of grace was purchased onely by the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ our redemption who in our nature satisfying our contempts and in our nature working our righteousnesse did in our nature and in our behalfe indent with God and enter these covenants with him for us and our salvation And lastly to ratifie all hee did die in our nature The foundation of Christian Religion and with the blood of his most sacred hand subscribed and sealed his testament our covenant whereby it is made unquestionable true and unalterable to all times and posterities It is evident then that the matter of the Gospell The words and workes of Christ the matter of the Gospell is wholly contained onely in the words and workes of Jesus Christ and that Christ is the contract compendium of all such particulars as are contained in the covenant of mans salvation and that therefore the Canons and decrees of Counsels and Ecclesiasticall States nay the very writings of the Prophets and Apostles adde not any matter to the substance of the covenant of grace but rather to bee understood as interpretations and plaine expositions of such secrets as the wisedome of Christ Jesus thought good to fold inallegories and darke sentences for Christ left not his worke defective and imperfect whereby it might require correction of any but in a most exact performance therefore saith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 3.11 12 14. Other foundation can no man lay then that which is already layd which is Christ Iesus And he assureth a reward to them that build upon this foundation and not to them that build a new foundation or alter this which is already laid Christ then the foundatlon of Christian regligion and the substance of the Gospell did execute his divine office with a double diligence his word his worke by his word is understood such spirituall doctrine as hee daily delivered to his hearers whether it were direction admonition reformation or interpretation in all which our Saviour hath so aboundantly travelled as that not onely the Apostles but the Catholique Church also may receive ample and sufficient direction The words of Christ give all men sufficient divine direction both for divine doctrine and spirituall discipline By his workes is understood every act and all the passages of his temporall life from his incarnation to his death upon the Crosse in all which time he was continually working somewhat that was availeable and necessary to the redemption of mankinde Thus is Christ generally to be understood A generall understanding of Christ as that hee was the principall matter of the Gospell and the onely working meanes of our savation Now to make this doctrine both familiar and profitable to Christian men of easie understanding this double care of Christ is subdevided into these particulars The duties of the soule The words of Christ in the time of his incarnation did instruct us the duties of our soules and the duties of society the duties of the soule are all those things that are needfully required in the state of Christianity whether wee respect the necessary faith of the Church the necessary orders in the Church or the necessary obedience to the Church The duties of society The duty of society is civill action and humanity that is a loving charitable and orderly conversing of Christian men one with another and this our Saviour Christ called the great Commandement great indeed and of great consequence because without this duty of humanity wee cannot performe unto God our duty of divinity 1 Ioh. 4.12 20. For hee that loveth not his neighbour whom he hath seene cannot love God whom he hath not seene and this society and duties of the soule comprehend generally the substance of such doctrines as Christ Jesus himselfe hath delivered and left behind him for our examples Also the matter of the Gospell are the workes of Christ and therein such things are comprehended as were necessary to be done by Christ Heb. 10.9 10. and necessary to be knowne and believed of us being the price of our redemption without which it was impossible wee should be reconciled to Gods favour and by which the Covenant of the Gospel is both obtained and confirmed unto us which workes of Christ be reduced to these principalls to his birth to his life and to his death what hee did by assuming our nature what hee did and suffered by living in our nature and what he did by suffering when he died in our nature What hee did in being borne this is the most orderly understanding of the workes of our Saviour Christ for when Christ did assume our nature and was borne of the blessed Virgin hee did an act of wonderfull great love and of great humility of great humility in that hee deigned to descend his
unto men to bee justified therefore good workes doe not precede a man to bee justified but follow him being justified as the effect and fruit of faith that is our workes shall bee our witnesses what wee are in heart and what wee are in fayth Rom. 4 22.23 Eph. 2.10 but by faith wee are justified and made righteous in the sight of God Saint Paul saith not that wee are the creatures of God in Christ through good workes but that wee are created of God in Christ to doe good workes Againe you are saved by grace through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Vers 8 9. not of workes least any man should boast himselfe Math. 9.22 29. Marke 5.34 10.52 Luke 7.50 8.48 Acts 26.18 John 1.12 Our Saviour Christ as it is in sundry places of the Evangelists recorded saith often thy faith hath saved thee onely believe believe onely and thou shalt receive remission of sinnes and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in mee as many as believe in me to them hath God given power to become the sonnes of God whosoever believeth in me shall not be condemned shall not perish but have everlasting life these be the words of our Saviour Christ now Saint Paul saith Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 16 31. and thou shalt be saved Gal. 3.8 Rom. 4 3 c. God doth justifie through faith we are blessed by faith we are the children of Abraham yea we are the children of God by faith the righteousnesse of God commeth by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe If therefore thou confesse with the mouth of the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raysed him from the dead thou shalt bee saved for with the heart man believeth unto righteousnesse Rom. 3.24 c. and with the mouth man confesseth unto salvation Wee are freely justified by his grace through faith but justification is onely proper to Gods children so that all prophane and ungodly people are out of possibility to bee justified and made righteous in the sight of God this is proved by Saint Paul to the Romans Rom. 8.3 Whom he predestinated them also he called and whom he called them also be justified And againe justification is a righteousnesse in the sight of God that is such as have a true a living and a saving faith and by faith wee doe apprehend the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ God is content to accept of such in the righteousnesse of his Sonne and to obscure their sins and to make them to appeare and stand before him as actually and verily just by his imputative righteousnesse as if they had wrought it personally in the practise of their owne lives If any make demand how can these things be I answer with the Apostle Vers 33 34. Rom. 5.1 It is God that justifieth who shall condemne Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ Thus farre Saint Paul whereby we may see that if justification and salvation should bee attributed to the merits of mans good workes it would occasion boasting and glorying in the flesh and challenging of our justification and salvation as due to the merit of our good workes and so much abâ—te and abase the glory of Gods grace that grace should then no more deserve the name of grace The Scripture is full of proofes in this argument looke Gal. 2.16 Rom. 3.21.22.28 30. Act. 13.38 Rom. 1.29.30 31. but if Justification and Salvation be as it ought to be wholly given and ascribed unto Gods grace and mercy promised unto us in Christ Jesus which we doe apprehend and lay hold of onely by faith as the onely instrumentall cause under Gods grace then is all the glory and honour of our justification given onely unto God without any merit of man and so as it is said before is concluded that we meane not by faith onely to exclude the doing but the meriting of good workes Seeing that none can be saved but those that are first justified and seeing none can be justified but they that have a true living and a working faith It behoveth all men to have a principall care to have the assurance of this faith that so they may be sure to be justified that they may be sure to be saved And because all men are naturally prone to deceive themselves with flattery and favourable opinion of themselves and their owne actions because Saint James and so the Scripture James 2. in many places doth utterly dis-inable an idle dead and a fruitlesse faith from the office of Justification it therefore neerely concerneth all men seriously and without private respect to examine their faith and compare their faith and their workes together that their workes being good those workes may justifie their faith to be a living and a saving faith and that they content not themselves with a bare and common historicall faith the which the Divell and the damned soules may have but that their faith may be approved good by the sufficient testimony of their good works without which their faith cannot be good For as the tree is knowne by his fruit and as it is impossible to gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles even so is our faith judged by our workes and so it is impossible that good workes should proceed from an evill faith or that a good faith should not produce good works good works being a necessary dependance upon a good faith This ought to provoke all men to an emulation of godly exercise to contend to exceed in holy actions and to square and fashion all their workes by their faith Note and to make every act of theirs a testimony that they are truly faithfull For he that is not with us is against us and those workes of ours that witnesse not for us will be witnesses against us and will condemne us in the sight of all men that our faith is not good or not at all and that therefore wee are not justified neither can be saved This may judge all those actions of men that disproportion a good faith and a good conscience For though men flatter themselves and promise peace to their soules and thinke to be justified and saved by a bare acknowledgment of God and their common historicall faith yet in a time when they thinke not on 't Note their ungodly workes will make warre upon their soules and bring upon them a sure and a sudden destruction Againe seeing justification is a meanes ordained by God to bring us to salvation this ought to move all men to a faithfull acknowledgement of Gods love who onely is the principall and first moving cause in every circumstance of our salvation and that we doe acknowledge our selves in great humility to be altogether defective and unable in the worke of our owne salvation and that every grace in us is
immediately from him or by some meane are bestowed in a certaine measure for no man in all points hath granted unto him such a perfection of any gift but that hee may be made more perfect in the same gift for whosoever is wife is so wise in measure that he may yet be made wiser in that of that sort is the gift of faith and all other the gifts of God granted unto men this the Apostle witnesseth saying that no man esteeme of himselfe more then he ought Rom. 12. but so esteeme himselfe that he behave himselfe discreetly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith Againe the Apostle saith that there is given to some a greater to some a lesser measure of faith Ephes 4. yet there is one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God one selfesame but not all one measure one Father of all which is above and through all and in you all Wherefore the faithfull be not alike in those things which doe grow upon faith and doe follow the same as in knowledge in love and feare of God also in hope love to our neighbours patience and study of godly life Againe Measure of faith sufficient to salvation 1 Cor. 12. the measure of faith is so divided by the providence of God that to the elect there is no lesse given him then is sufficient to salvation For he giveth a sufficient proportion to every one for he that hath the greater hath never a whit the greater salvation nor hee which hath the lesse hath never the lesse salvation the truth thereof is set forth in Exodus and they gathered Manna some more Exod. 16 17 18. some lesse and unto him that gathered much remained nothing over and unto him that had gathered little there was no lacke True faith whereof wee doe speake is not given unto all men therefore it is that the Apostle saith 2 Thes 1. Rom. 10.16 Esay 65.12 all men have not faith all men doe not believe the Gospel for Esaias saith Lord who hath believed our sayings To obey the Gospel is to assent unto it with true faith and to repose our selves in it with a good and assured trust therefore the true faith of Christ is not in all men that is to say it is none of those common gifts of God which are commonly given unto all men but it is one of the speciall graces which are onely given unto some few by the providence of God of this kinde be also the heavenly and spirituall gifts which be necessary unto true and everlasting felicity such as faith hope charity patience the study of godlinesse and the feare of the Lord and the like No doubt this gift of faith is a singular gift of God but it is not enough for a man to have it When it is once gotten it must be nourished when we have it unlesse that after hee hath it it be continually conserved increased and practised throughout all our life for faith is of the same nature that the vertues be which be naturally powred into us and be necessary for the conservation of this present life which it is not sufficient to have received them unlesse they be also furthered amplified and encreased in us as for example the power of reason which wee received at the first birth of our flesh which must alwaies be nourished advanced and exercised to the necessary uses of our life Note So this Christian faith which is as it were a certaine reason of our second birth and new man in Christ must like an infant be fed and furthered to the spirituall life the increase of faith is when it groweth and increaseth in the hearts of the faithfull whereby it waxeth stronger and stronger by the grace of God that we be now able to believe those things which before wee could not believe although they were never so true and set forth in the Word of God that Christ is the Saviour of the world 2 Thes 1. The Thessalonians increased in faith abundantly this increase of faith doth depend upon the increase of the knowledge of Christ so the faithfull be admonished of Saint Peter that they should increase in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3. the increase of faith may be perceived in the mutuall love towards our brethren in their patience and suffering of troubles So the Apostle meant when he said For as much as your faith increaseth 2 Thes 1. and the charity of every of you one towards another aboundeth so that wee our selves doe glory of you in the Church of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations which you doe suffer on the other side staggering and carefull feare doth argue a weaknesse of faith so it was said to Saint Peter Why doubtest thou O thou of little faith Mat. 14.30 31. and they which doe start backe in the time of temptation persecution affliction or tribulation are tryed to be weake in faith and doe prove themselves so to be so the faith of St. Peter was weake Mat. 26.71 72. when he was proved by the maydens word and denyed his Master And seeing that there is given to all the elect of God a measure of faith from the Lord and that the same is not all one in all men and yet sufficient for every one unto salvation and is such that it is not perfected in any certaine space of time or yeeres but that wee must travell in it and endeavour it as long as wee live in this world as soone as faith is conceived by the gift of God Faith breedeth true repentance it produceth and bringeth forth as her daughter true repentance and that so soone that it seemeth to bring it with her from heaven as her waiting mayd whereof there be many examples in the holy Scriptures Zachâ—us as soone as hee was come to the faith of Christ said Luk. 19.8 Lo Lord I doe give the one halfe of my goods to the poore and in case I have beguiled any body I doe restore foure times as much which words doe manifestly declare the judgement of true repentance and when a great sort of people began to believe the saying of St. Peter Acts 2.37 they had remorse in their hearts and brast out saying What shall wee doe brethren to be saved and many of them that began to believe came to the Apostles and disclosed their doings moved no doubt by the spirit of repentance The true knowledge of God Faith doth take hold of the true knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ his Sonne which the world here cannot attaine unto The holy Spirit doth kindle a light in the hearts of the faithfull so that they may most certainly know those things to be most true which they doe believe in faith so Saint Peter said to whom shall wee goe Joh. 6.68 69. thou hast the words of
THE SOVLES PROGRESSE To the Celestiall CANAAN or Heavenly JERVSALEM By way of godly Meditation and holy contemplation accompanied with divers learned exhortations and pithy perswasions tending to Christianity and humanity Divided into two Parts The first Part treateth of the divine Essence Quality and Nature of God and his holy Attributs and of the creation fall state death and misery of an unregenerated man both in this life and in the world to come Put for the whole scope of the Old Testament The second Part is put for the summe and compendium of the Gospell and treateth of the Incarnation Nativity Words Works and sufferings of Christ and of the happinesse and blessednesse of a godly man in his state of Renovation being reconciled to God in Christ Collected out of the Scriptures and out of the writings of the ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church and other Orthodoxall Divines by John Welles of Beccles in the County of Suffolk LONDON Printed by E. G. and are to be sold by Henry Shephard in Chancery-lane at the signe of the Bible between Serjeants-Inne and Fleetstreet neere the Kings-head-Taverne 1639. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL Sr. JOHN HOBART Of Blickling in the County of Norfolke Knight Baronet one of his Majesties Deputies Lieutenant Justice of Peace and Quorum Captaine and Colonell of part of his Majesties Forces there Prime Heire of the Right Honourable and reverend Judge Sr. Henry Hobart Knight and Baronet Lord chiefe Justice of his M ties honble Court of Common Pleas. John Welles Wisheth much increase of Honour and all true comfort in this life a blessed end and eternall happinesse in the life to come I Have presumed to dedicate these my labours unto you Right noble sir the off-spring and undoubted Heire of my noble friend your father deceased and inheritour of his Lands and Livings and the chiefe of that great and renowned family And as you doe inherit his Lands and Livings so my prayer is that you may inherit him in his integrity zeale wisdome I speak not this out of doubtfull feare but in officious love and herein take notice I beseech you of this happinesse and blessing of God cast upon you not only to be the chiefe of this great and worthy family but also take notice of the true cause of the worth and greatnesse of your Ancestours and imitate them therein and then inheriting their worth together with their wealth you shall also most undoubtedly enrich your selfe with the obsequious attendance and hearty affection of your native Countrymen and so grow in grace and favour with God and man For which cause I have presumed to present you with this Tractate and to publish the same under the protection of your name hoping of your courteous acceptance and beseeching you to grant it your favourable protection and Patronage which though it be but indifferently contrived yet strongly warranted for it hath the undoubted truth of God for its authority There may be many Tractates found tending to these ends but all that I have seene of others though they may bee more pithy yet certaine I am this is more plaine I trust not unpleasant nor unprofitable God give all grace to make right use of it And so commending my labours with all the desired good that may be unto your good Worship and both you and it to the speciall grace and protection of the Almighty who is aboundantly able to fill your heart with grace to crowne your daies with blessing and to finish them with eternall comfort life and glory Amen I rest a true desirer of your best good And your Worships in all Christian duty to be commanded JOHN WELLES October 22. 1638. The Authors Preface to the READER GEntle Christian friendly Reader and loving country-man about ten yeeres since past at spare houres as my daily employments would give me leave I first began to collect and gather out of Scripture and other godly and learned Authors many principall and speciall notes worthy observation and remembrance When I first began I had not thought to bring it forth to the worlds view but onely for my owne private commodity to the comfort of my minde the more I gathered the more I was ravished and being thus in holy contemplation the matter being holy excellent and heavenly I was incited and stirred up by godly motion to undertake a worke so excellent which through want of learning I knew my selfe altogether unable to performe what my heart desired yet yeelding obedience to the holy motion and humbly craving and earnestly praying the power divine to assist mee with his holy Spirit to accomplish that which I had a desire to finish Phil. 4.13 and had already begun knowing as Saint Paul saith that I am able to doe all things Phil. 1.12 through the helpe of him that strengtheneth mee And praying for his blessing to blesse my endeavours and then in the name of God Prov. 16.3 with cheerfulnesse of heart I persevered in my purpose committing the successe unto him Eccles 8. in whose power it is to blesse with his grace whatsoever businesse is intended to his glory For fithence Salomon himselfe saith that mans wisdome is unperfect and his knowledge in each Science uncertaine therefore I being utterly destitute of that wisdome and but of slender knowledge neither may 2 Cor. 3.5 2 Cor. 4.5 doe nor will I presume to thinke that by any meanes I am able of my selfe to perform my desired enterprize as of my selfe or bring to perfection so waighty a matter and so intricate 1 Cor. 4.4 For though I may say with Saint Paul I know not what I have mistaken or wherein I have erred yet will I not dare to report or be encouraged to affirme that my worke is perfect or that I have fully performed my long-wished attempt and for that cause standing in doubt whether I have concealed many truthes or adventured to report some errors which by my weakenesse of judgement or slacknesse of consideration have happened in this Treatise but through his divine assistance have here accomplished what my soule desired to bring to passe I meane this poore Tractate named the Soules Progresse to the celestiall Canaan divided into two parts the first part treateth of the divine Essence of God and his holy attributes and of the creation state death and misery of man put for the whole passage of the old Testament the second part is put for the summe and compendium of the Gospel and treateth of the words workes and sufferings of Christ and of the happinesse and blessednesse of a godly man in his state of renovation being reconciled to God in Christ which poore mite I doe cast into the worlds treasury knowing that the great learned orthodoxall Writers out of their superfluous abundance have cast in much but like the poore widow in the Gospel Luke 21.4 I out of my want doe cast in even all that I have beseeching the Lord to give it
that their glory multitude and wealth with such as rejoyce in her shall descend into it Thus hath a man a fall and is brought low and the high lookes of the proud shall be cast downe Vers 15. Psal 36.12 there are they fallen all that worke wickednesse they are cast downe and shall not be able to stand To the Reader IF thou wouldst understand the Deity Behold the mystery of the holy Trinity An Essence divine eternall infinite is hee Spirituall and of wonderfull magnanimity Of power of might and majesty Of goodnesse greatnesse and excellency Of glory continuance and quality And is perfectly good unchangeably From everlasting and perpetually And is every where present repletively Essentially potentially and vertually Which is seene by his admirable works apparantly With our eyes and minde continually From age to age universally This Almighty God incomprehensible Omnipotent invisible and incomparable Immortall incorruptible and unspeakeable Dwelleth in light inaccessible And is coequall coessentiall and coeternall Of one substance immutable and unsearchable This high blessed Heavens Creatour Is the earths creatures Conserver Increaser nourisher repairer and governour By his omnipresent power Although he dwels in Heaven principally Yet hee is and dwels on earth effectually In the faithfull his elect especially In his wisedome grace and mercy Therefore be praised evermore the Trinity Father Sonne and holy Ghost in unity This to believe is godly charity Saving faith and holy piety For speaking of Gods simple verity Nought more beseemes then true simplicity If further thou wouldst understand his Majesty Goe in behold and see his excellency For what I know of his all-knowing worth With single heart I have simply here set forth Thus wishing that my labours may To heavens rest thy soule convey No attributes can sufficiently expresse the essence of God but the attributes which be given unto God be taken out of the usage of mens speech and so applyed unto the nature of God to the end that those things which cannot be properly expressed by any toung nor language may yet at the least wise be by the figures of mens speeches in some sort shadowed whatsoever therefore is spoken of God is so in God as it serveth to helpe our weake understanding to conceive in our reason and to utter in our speech the majesty of his divine nature quality and essence for of himselfe he is infinite and ineffable in his essence might power and working THE SOVLES PROGRESSE TO THE Celestiall CANAAN Of the Essence of God and how he is to be understood in his holy Attributes so farre as hee hath revealed himselfe in holy Scriptures for otherwise no man is able to define what God is ALL men are by a certaine instinct of nature desirous of knowledge and account ignorance evill and unseemely like a defective body or lightlesse house for knowledge is the eye of the mind the light of the soule the ornament of grace and nature and is a collection of understanding gathered in the grounds of learning by the instruction of wisedome Eccles 1. shee is the exercise of memory in the actions of the mind and the imployer of the senses in the will of the Spirit and such Riches as will swimme with the master when he suffers shipwracke and sees his whole estate sinke before his eyes Now the more excellent a thing is the more worthy it is of our knowledge for it is discommendable and uncomely for anyman to bee ignorant of himselfe especially of the causes the meanes and manner of his eternall Salvation and Redemption from horrible and intolerable Misery To further this knowledge my purpose is out of the Scriptures and by the helpe of sundry learned and orthodoxall Writers briefly to shew and set forth how God is to be understood and so we shall as in a glasse behold what course the Lord hath in his wisedome taken to manifest his grace unto us and to make us partakers of his glory 3 Meanes to know that there is a God Touching this matter there are three waies whereby God doth manifest and open himselfe to the knowledge of man the first way and most generall consisteth in his working where the Majesty of God setteth himselfe to be seene in all his workes throughout the compasse of all the world in Heaven as well as in the earth Rom. 1.20 this way is most generall because it is so set forth to all people of all Nations that no man can excuse himselfe for not knowing God Vers 19. It cannot be denied but that there is in us a certaine quicknesse of understanding and strength of reason Wisd 13. as might be the eye of our minde whereby we may know in Gods Workes God himselfe the worker thereof but unlesse the brightnesse for the workes of God were so great that they did set forth the Majesty of the worker to bee seene throughout all the earth our reason should have had no cause or meanes to have knowne that there had beene a God Therefore the first cause of our knowledge of God is attributed to the light and brightnesse of the Workes of God whereby the Philosophers did acknowledge the Majesty of the invisible God Rom. 1 c. How the Philosophers knew God by his Workes as the Apostle witnesseth For first they did observe in the Workes of God an exceeding great Majesty an infinite multitude a wonderfull variety a most constant order a seemely agreement an endlesse continuance a pleasant vicissitude or entercourse of things comming and going briefly Wisd 13. such wisedome in creating governing and bestowing of things and in conserving of them such power and might that they could ascribe the whole workemanship of all things Heavenly and earthly to no other nature but to the Nature of God Besides this they tasted indeed of the wonderfull goodnesse of God by the infinite number of commodities growing unto them both from Heaven and earth which the Apostle rehearseth saying Acts 14.17 Verely hee left not himselfe without witnesse doing good and helping them from Heaven giving raine and fruitfull seasons filling their hearts with food and gladnesse Thirdly they felt a marvellous terrour of lightning earthquakes Math. 24. pestilences gapings of the ground strange sights and apparitions from Heaven in the Sunne Moone Starres and Comets the fore-shewers of great mischiefes and slaughters and withall that the prophesies of things to come such as were Sibyls Iob. 37. Iob 38. and of the Prophets were so certaine and true that they plainly passe the limits of mans fore-knowledge and proved the power of the God-head to governe all things in the world They that bee so unfaithfull and grosse Some believe nothing but what they see with their eyes as the Stoicks and Epicures that they cannot apply their understanding and credite to things invisible be so affected for the most part that they believe nothing neither of the life felicity and glory of Heaven neither of the
him and that Angels in their spirituall natures are sent to minister Heb. 1.14 for their sakes that shall be heires of salvation It doth remember us first the wonderfull love of God toward mankind in sending his choice servants the Angels that waite in his presence neere the person of his Majesty to be imployed about men in the service of their salvation Secondly it ought to move men to a precise reverence in the common behaviour of their lives that they forbeare not only the committing of grosse and capitall sins but all unseemlinesse both of words and actions as St. Paul saith For the reverence of Angels for as divels are banished and driven away from the possessed 1 Cor. 11.10 by prayer and holy exercise so the good Angels then leave our company when we delight in wickednesse and unseemely behaviour therefore consider thou devour soule how great the goodnesse of God is toward thee Math. 1. who hath made his Angels thy keepers and hath sent his owne Sonne to redeeme thee Note the Sonne of God is made flesh to save us the holy Ghost is sent to sanctifie us Acts 1. the Angels are sent to protect us So then all the Court of Heaven doth as it were serve us and convey their benefits unto us therefore no wonder that all inferior creatures were made for the use of man seeing the Angels themselves creatures far more excellent do not deny their ministry unto us the Angels themselves are present with us and do refresh and ease us when we are weary with the burthen and heat of temptations and calamities therefore O most mercifull God thou that leadest us through the desart of this World by the conduct of thy Angels grant that we may at length be carried by them into thy everlasting Kingdome of Heaven This knowledge of the Mercy and Power of God in creating the Angels and appointing them to Minister to all the children of grace shall bind mee in the most assured bonds of duty and thankfull acknowledgement to my God To repose in God is assurance of safety I will also confidently repose in the trust of Gods promises being assured that himselfe that his holy Spirit that his holy Angels are my supporters therefore I will never despairingly feare the power of adversaries evill men or divels or what evill power so ever because I know the guard of Angels are my supporters I will therefore reforme the errours of my life and watch my owne behaviour I will endeavour to avoyd both sinne and unseemelinesse in all my actions that the holy Angels may love and not loath my company I will so endeavour that my conscience may assure me that I am thine appointed to salvation therefore in the protection of Angels I shall also receive content and pleasure unexpressable The holy Angels have joy in heaven at the newes of mans Salvation holy and blessed Spirits Heb. 1.14 Luke 15.7 they are so delighted with the use of mercy as that they rejoyce and congratulate the prosperity of men hoping to enjoy their fellowship O my God I will acknowledge thy greatnesse and thy goodnesse in the creation of Angels The Saduces deny that there are Angels I will condemne their infidelity that believe it not thou hast said it who dare question it I will therefore believe it acknowledge thy power praise thy mercy and with reverence remember the office and ministration of thy holy Angels Of man his first beginning WHen God created the World he said Gen 3 c. Let there be and all things were and by his word he gave being and proportion to all creatures save man That hee might conclude his labour with a worke of extraordinary admiration he then made man giving him the possession of the world in this wonderfull worke of God is to be had these three considerations First the advice and deliberation of the Trinity in determining this worke God said Verse 26. Let us make man after our owne Image according to our likenesse Secondly God made man of a preexistent matter not creating him of nothing as hee did the other creatures Gen. 2.7 The Lord God made man of the dust of the ground Thirdly God gave man the rule and government over all creatures giving him liberty over all to use them in their kind with moderation and let them rule over the Fish of the Sea Gen. 1.26 and over the Foules of the Ayre and over the Beasts of the Earth and over every thing that creepeth and moveth on the earth Fourthly the end of mans creation was for the honour and glory of God that made him Esay 43.7 Every one shall be called after my Name for I formed them made them and created them for my owne glory Though no man can bee able to give a reason of the secret will of God yet this may bee imagined that seeing the world and all the creatures therein save onely man have a generall respect to the honour of God therefore they were by the generall power of Gods divinity created but man being determined in the counsell of God that man should bee an occasion that the whole Trinity should have divine exercise in the government of his life and every one in their severall assignements A supposed reason of Gods secret will as should please themselves to appoint therefore God in the Trinity of persons made man because afterward in the Trinity of persons hee was to governe him God gave man a Law which he being not able to keepe did condemne him Christ the second person moderateth the Law and giveth the Gospell promising Salvation to all them that will believe in him the holy Ghost moveth in the hearts of Gods Elect and giveth them grace to apprehend by faith the meanes of their Salvation Thus are they personally busied in the government and preservation of man The holy Ghost moves grace thus were they personally at his Creation The second consideration is the matter of mans creation which in a double respect is considerable in the person of God First when God formed other creatures hee required no matter but gave them being by his Word but when hee formed man he first prepared his matter then gave the forme Note and created man wherein God doth use a double care a double diligence not that he could not create man of nothing as hee had done the rest of his Creatures but he did it in the wisdome of his divinity for respect and causefull consideration for to expresse his double or rather his manifold affections to the creature man Secondly to prevent the proud imagination man might have of the noblenesse of his nature it being yet in the pride of mans flesh to boast his descent and to derive his families from antiquity and greatnesse The third consideration is the distinguishing forme of man his reasonable soule whereby God doth distinguish him from all the creatures on earth giving
doting vanities and take a view with mee of thy dolefull miseries which duly surveyed and truly considered I doubt not but that thou wilt conclude with mee that it is farre better never to have natures being then not to bee by grace a practitioner of religious piety consider therefore the miseries in thy life and first of thy infancie Of the wretchednesse of man being conceived in sinne brought forth in uncleannesse and his dayes miserable What wast thou being an infant but a bruit and a lumpe of sinfull flesh conceived in the shape of man and thy body conceived in the heate of lust the secret of shame and staine of originall sinne and thus wast thou cast naked upon the earth all imbrued in the blood of filthinesse filthy indeed so that thy mother was ashamed to let thee know the manner thereof What cause then hast thou to boast thy birth which was a cursed paine to thy mother and to thy selâ—e the entrance into a dangerous and troublesome life the greatnesse of which miseries because thou couldest not expresse in words thou didst shew forth as well as thou couldst in weeping teares Secondly of the miseries of thy youth What wast thou in thy youth but like a wild and untamed beast all whose actions are rash and rude not capable of any good counsell when it is given thee and Ape-like delighting in nothing but toyes and baubles foolish and vaine things therefore thou no sooner begannest to have a little strength and discretion but forthwith thou wast kept under the rod of correction by feare of parents and masters as if thou hadst beene borne to live alwaies in subjection and discipline of others rather than to be at the disposition of thine owne will no tyred horse was ever more willing to be rid of his burthen then thou wast to get out of the servile state of this bondage Thirdly the miseries of manhood What is mans state but a sea wherein as waves one trouble ariseth in the necke of another the latter worse than the former no sooner didst thou enter into the affaires of the world but thou wast enwrapped about with a cloud of miseries The miserable state condition of man in his midle-age thy flesh provokes thee to lust the world allures thee to pleasure and the divell tempts thee to all manner of sinnes feare of enemies affrights thee suits in law doe vexe thee wrongs of ill neighbours doe oppresse thee cares of wife and children doe consume thee and disquietnesse twixt open foes and false friends doe in a manner confound thee finne stings thee within Satan layes snares before thee within thy conscience accuseth thee thy sinnes past dogge behind thee now adversity on the left hand frets thee anon prosperity on thy right hand flatters thee over thy head Gods vengeance due to thy sinne is ready to fall upon thee 2 Cor. 11 25 c. and under thy feet hell mouth is ready to swallow thee up and in this miserable estate whither wilt thou goe for rest and comfort the house is full of cares the field full of toyles the Countrey of rudenesse the City of factions the Court full of envie the Church full of sects the Sea of Pirats the Land of robbers that thou canst be no where safe or free from danger or in what state wilt thou live in seeing wealth is envied and poverty contemned wit is distrusted and simplicity is derided superstition is mocked and religion is suspected vice is advanced and vertue is disgraced Oh! with what a body of sinne and misery art thou compassed about in a world of wickednesse what are thine eyes but windowes to behold vanities what are thine cares but flood-gates to let in streames of iniquity what are thy senses but matches to give fire to thy lusts what is thy heart but the anvill whereon Satan hath forged the ugly shape of all leud affections Art thou Nobly descended thou must put thy selfe in perill of forraigne warres to get the reputation of earthly honour oft times hazzard thy selfe in a desperate combate to avoyd the aspersion of a coward Art thou borne in meane estate Lord what paine and drudgery must thou endure both at home and abroad to get thee maintenance and all perhaps scarce sufficient to relieve thy necessity and to supply thy want and when after much travell service and labour a man hath got something how little certainety is there in that which is gotten seeing thou seest by daily experience that hee who was yesterday rich to day is a begger How sudden is change of state hee that yesterday was in health is to day sicke hee that a yesterday was merry and laughed hath cause to day to mourne and weepe hee that yesterday was in great favour is to day in as great disgrace hee that yesterday was alive and in health is to day dead and thou knowest not how soone and in what manner thou shalt dye thy selfe and who then can innumerate the losses crosses griefes disgraces and calamities which are incident to sinfull man and to let passe the death of wife children and friends which seemes oft-times to be farre more bitter unto us then present death it selfe Fourthly the miseries of old age What is old age but the receptacle of all maladies The condition of old age for if it be thy lot to draw thy daies to a long date in comes bald-headâ—d old age stooping under dotage with his wrinckled face rotten teeth stinking breath testy with choler withered with drinesse dimmed with blindnesse obsurded with deafenes overwhelmed with sickenesse diseased and pained with bone-ach decrepid with age and almost bowed together with weaknesse having scarse use of any sense but the sense of paine which so racketh every member of his body that it never easeth him of griefe till it hath throwne him downe into his grave for the earth is the wombe that hath bred us and the earth is the tombe that must receive us Thus endeth the miseries of the body in this life Of the Meditation of the misery of the body and soule in this life SInfulnesse in man is an universall corruption Ephes 2.3 Genes 6.5 Rom. 12.2 1 Cor. 2.14 Phil. 2.3 Rom. 3.12 Rom. 7.19 both of nature and actions for by nature wee are infected with a pronenesse to every sin continually the mind is stuffed with vanity the understanding is darkened with ignorance the will affecteth nothing but vile and vaine things all her actions are evill yea this deformity is so violent that oftentimes in the regenerate soule the appetite will not obey the government of reason and the will wandreth after and yeelds content to sinfull motions How great then is the violence of the appetite and will in the Reprobate soule which still remaines in her naturall corruption Hence it is that thy wretched soule is so deformed with sinne defiled with lust polluted with filthinesse outraged with passions over-carried with affections pining
with envie overcharged with gluttony surquedred with drunkennesse John 8.44 boyling with revenge transported with rage and the glorious Image of God transformed to the ugly shape of divell Genes 6.6 so farre forth that once it repented the Lord that ever hee made man After that the aged man hath conflicted with long sicknesse and having endured the brunt of paine should now expect some ease in comes death natures slaughter man Gods curse and hells purvey or and lookes the old man grim in the face and neither pittying his age nor regarding his long endured dolours will not be hired to forbeare either for silver or gold but batters all the principall parts of the body summons him to appeare before the terrible Judge of heaven and earth Now the miserable soule perceiveth her earthly body to begin to dye for as towards the dissolution of the universall frame of the great world Mark 13.24 25 26. the Sunne shall be turned into darkenesse the Moone into blood and the Staâ—res shall fall from heaven the aire shall be full of stormes Luk. 21.25 26. and flashing meteors the earth shall tremble and the sea shall rage and roare and mens hearts shall faile and tremble for feare so towards the dissolution of man which is the little world his eyes which are as the Sunne and Moone lose their light and see nothing but bloodguiltinesse of sin the rest of the senses as little starres doe one after another faile and fall his minde reason and memory as heavenly powers of the soule are shaken with fearefull stormes of despaire and first flashing of hell fire his earthly body begins to shake and tremble and the humours like an overflowing sea roare and rattle in his throat still expecting the wofull end of his dreadfull beginning Whilest hee is thus The soule summoned to appeare at the tribunall Zach. 5.2 c. summoned to appeare at the great assises of Gods generall Judgement behold a quarter sessions and goale delivery is held within himselfe where Reason sits as Judge the Divell puts in a bill of inditement as large as that booke of Zachary wherein is alledged all thy evill deeds that ever thou hast committed and all the good deeds that ever thou hast omitted wherein is written lamentations and mourning and woe Ezech. 2.10 and all the curses and judgements thar are due to every sinne thine owne conscience shall accuse thee and thy memory shall give bitter evidence against thee and death stands at the barre ready 1 John 3.20 as a cruell executioner to dispatch thee If thou shalt thus justly condemne thy selfe how shalt thou escape the just condemnation of God who knowes all thy misdeeds better than thy selfe Faine wouldst thou put out of thy minde the remembrance of thy wicked deeds that trouble thee but they flow faster into thy remembrance and they will not be put away but cry unto thee Wee are thy workes and wee will follow thee and whilest thy soule within thee is thus out of peace and order thy children wife and friends trouble thee as fast to have thee put thy goods in order some crying some craving some pittying some cheering all like flesh flies helping to make thy sorrowes more sorrowfull Now the divells who are come from hell to fetch away thy soule begin to appeare to her and wait as soone as shee comes forth to take her and carry her away stay shee would within but that shee feeles the body begin by degrees to dye and ready like a ruinous house to house to fall upon her head fearefull shee is to come forth because of those hell-hounds which wait for her comming Oh shee that spent so many daies and nights in vaine and idle pastimes would now give the whole world if shee had it for one houres delay that shee may have space to repent and reconcile her selfe unto God but it cannot be because her body which joyned with her in the actions of sin is altogether now unfit to joyne with her in the exercise of repentance and repentance must be of the whole man The dolour of the soule The soule now seeth that all her pleasures are gone as if they had never beene and that but onely torments remaine which never shall have end of being who can sufficiently expresse her remorse for her sins past her anguish for her present misery and her terror for her torments to come In this extremity she lookes about every where for helpe and finds her selfe every way helpelesse thus in her greatest miseries desirous to heare the least word of comfort shee directs this or the like speech unto her eyes saying O eyes who in times past were so quicke sighted to behold the vanities of the world can yee spie no comfort for mee nor any way how I might escape this dreadfull danger but the eye-strings are broken they cannot see the candle that burnes before them nor discerne whether it be day or night the distressed soule finding no comfort in the eyes speakes to the eares O eares who were wont to recreate your selves with hearing new pleasant discourses and musicks sweetest harmony can yee heare any newes or tidings of the least comfort for mee to escape this dreadfull danger the eares are so deafe that either they cannot heare at all or the sense of hearing growne so weake that they cannot endure to heare his dearest friends to speake and why should the eares heare any glad tydings of joy in death who could never abide to heare the glad tydings of the Gospell in his life the eares cannot minister no comfort Then she intimates her griefe to the tongue O tongue The reprobate soule can finde no comfort in her extremity who was wont to make bold challenges with the best and bragge it out with the bravest Where are now thy big and daring words now in my greatest need canst thou speake nothing in my defence Canst thou neither daunt these enemies with threatning words nor intreat them with faire speeches Alasse the tongue two daies agoe lay speechlesse that it cannot in his greatest extremity either call for a little drinke or desire a friend to take away with his finger the flegme that is ready to choak him Finding here no hope of helpe she speakes unto the feet where are ye O feet which sometimes were so swift and nimble in running to all manner of leudnesse All places are penall unto the reprobate which doe alwaies carry torments and vexation about them can yee carry me no where out of this dangerous place The feete are stone dead already that if they be not stirred they cannot stirre Then she directs her speech unto her hands O hands who have so often beene approved for manhood in peace and in warre and wherewith I have so often defended my selfe and offended my foes never had I more need then now death lookes me grim in the face and kills mee hellish fiends wait about my bed to devoure
God allure us by easie meanes and faire promises to everlasting life which the Law denieth to all men no man being able to satisfie the justice of the Law If it be objected then that the grace of the Gospell doth destroy the workes of the Law because that mercy is given of grace and not of desert it is answered that the Gospell doth not destroy the workes of the Law and the substance thereof but onely doth mitigate the rigour and severity thereof As God when he preserved Daniel in the Lyons denne hee did not destroy the Lyons but onely shut their mouthes and bound their power that they might not hurt Daniel Dan. 6.16 so he did not destroy the Law but onely restraine the violence thereof from hurting his Daniels that is his faithfull servants and as when King Darius tooke Daniel from the denne and cast in his accusers the Lyons power was no longer shut up Dan. 6.24 but had the mastery and devoured them their wives and children no more shall the reprobates avoyd the condemnation of the Law notwithstanding the promise of the gospell and the new covenant of grace Because no man hath the benefit of mercy but hee that first is the child of faith therefore the great King of all the world shall take his faithfull Daniels his Elect from the power of the Lyons the Law but leaveth the reprobate in the state of their destruction Thus much in generall of the Gospell and the difference betweene that and the Law and them that lived under the bondage of the Law and us that now live in the liberty of the Gospell the purpose of the Gospell is the salvation of man And therefore the Angell that was the first preacher of the gospell told the shepheards that hee brought them tydings of great joy Luk. 2.10 indeed a greater could not be then to bring them tydings of their salvation The matter of the gospell is the life the death and the doctrine of Jesus Christ for they are the onely meanes by which wee attaine to the favour of salvation Esay 43.11 his doctrines were directions his life examples and his death was and is life eternall to all them that apprehend him by a lively faith In the circumstance of the gospell is principally considered First God who of himselfe and of his owne election without any cause in man did enter this covenant of grace being moved onely by the pleasure of his owne most holy will and by his owne gracious love to his creatures for so saith the Holy Ghost God so loved the world Iohn 3.16 that he gave his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life Whereby it is evident that the love of God was the onely cause that moved him to this effect for God can glorifie himselfe aswell in the damnation Gods love to man is the moving cause of the covenant of grace as in the salvation of men For hee needeth no addition of honour that is infinite both in greatnesse and goodnesse but as his mercy is most eminent over all his attributes so in this new covenant of the Gospell hee doth give us the greatest demonstration of his mercy that can be in giving his only begotten Son to die on the Crosse for the redemption of mankind In every word there is a passion of love infinitely beyond all comparison wherein it seemeth that God doth as it were put off his Majesty and descend himselfe in his care to pity and redresse the ruined state of sinfull man his enemie Secondly in the person of Christ who is the cause both moving and finishing the covenant of the Gospell there is matter of most worthy and admirable consideration For Christ is not onely to bee understood as the instrumentall cause whereby this covenant of grace betweene God and man was effected but also as the first moving cause and deviser thereof it being impossible to assigne him offices without his appointment hee being equall to God the Father and the holy Ghost and they having all but one divinity undivided This the unbelieving Jewes could not comprehend and therefore they derided Christ when he said Before Abraham was Iohn 8.58 I am not knowing that hee was God equall and coeternall with the Father and was begotten before all beginning It is therefore most wonderfull in the person of Christ that hee being Lord of all the world that he would leave the bosome of his Father and for a time to put off the presence of his divine Majesty and to take our nature upon him in humility Strong witnesses of the love of Christ towards us and in a base estate to undertake not onely to satisfie the Law and to make good our defects but also to beare the displeasure of his Father and to suffer the malice of wicked men to prevaile against him even to his death and that he hath endured all this for the sinnes and good of man a creature that by sinne had brought himselfe in disgrace and heavy displeasure with God and which is most of all that hee hath done all this by his owne appointment without either command or direction there being no power above him by whom he could bee commanded This incomparable love of God is able to astonish a Christian meditation and to make a man admire and say with holy David Lord what is man that thou hast such respect unto him Psal 144.3 or the sonne of man that thou so regardest him This doth strongly relieve our faith against all diffidence shewing that our salvation hangs not like a meteor in the ayre but is firmely fixed upon the love of God in Christ Iere 31.3 32.40 2 Tim. 2.19 and it furthereth our spirituall joy in that it teacheth us that the love of God is constant and his decree concerning our welfare eternall And it also eclipseth the pride of the heart shewing that Gods dignation and not mans dignity his favour not mans faith his mercy and not mans merite is the fountaine and foundation of mans felicity Thirdly is considered The Ministers â—n the office of the Gospell the officers in the holy ministration of the gospell by whose faithfull endeavour and vigilance the spirituall graces of the gospell are distributed to the children of faith for whose sakes the covenant of grace is given the first officers in this kind were the twelve Apostles of purpose chosen by Christ Jesus himselfe that they might bee the faithfull witnesses of the whole passage of his life and that after his ascention they might plant in mens hearts a knowledge of the gospell by their prayers preachings and godly exhortations to dispose the holy seed of grace in their hearts whom God should make capable to entertaine it with profit These holy labourers being assisted by the holy Ghost travelled in Gods husbandry with such alacrity as that the Gospel in their times spread it selfe into very large
salvation be our continuall exercise let us exercise our pleasure in reading and meditating the excellent variety of matter and Majesty of the phrase in the Gospel being the rhetorique and eloquence of the holy Ghost let us also exercise in studying rightly to understand the covenant of our salvation to keepe which covenant wee shall therein often be admonished by promises threats intreaty and by examples in all which the knowledge and meditations of the Gospel will instruct us This doctrine is very usefull and solatious and may be applyed to many notable purposes for it shewes us the true causes of all our happinesse it also confuteth the Pelagians who ascribe salvation to mens owne strength and merits and it serves to correct the course of those that hinder their owne happinesse by their owne presumption diffidence incredulity prophanenesse sensuality and other irregular and irreligious courses Lastly it proves the deity of Christ for in that he hath elected his faithfull unto eternall life we conclude that he is very God for these respects and reasons let us enter covenant with our soules to be carefull in keeping our covenant with God Of the Incarnation of the Word Christ IT is necessary and meet to shew something of the Incarnation of Christ for because that the same doth chiefly belong to the worke of our Redemption we will note those things onely which shall seeme to helpe towards the stay of the purity and certainnesse of our faith and to cut off all curious and unprofitable questions it is needfull for them that will consider the mystery of the word Incarnate Not of mans word but of Gods Word For as much as this Incarnation is reported not of every word but of the Word of God it is first needfull for the confirmation of our faith that wee doe heare the testimony of holy Scripture that the word is in God it is declared even in the beginning of Genesis wherein the History of the Creation of all things is so oftentimes reiterated Gen. 1 c. and God said let it be and it was done he said and they were made he commanded and they were created and in another place By the Word of the Lord the heavens were fastened in the beginning was the Word John 1.1 and the Word was God and God was the Word Paul saith By the vertue of his Word and the brightnesse of his Glory Hebr. 1 c. upholding all things by the word of his Power Againe By faith wee understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God Hebr. 11. so that our faith is confirmed in this by the testimony of holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament that we doe believe the word to be in God of which thing there be found sufficient testimonies also in the writings of the Ethnickes which did attribute unto God-head the Mind the Word and the Spirit wherefore wee Christians may so much the more stedfastly stand unto our faith because that those things which wee doe believe of God the Father and his Word are so certaine and manifestly true that they be approved not onely by the infallible testimonies of holy Scriptures but of Ethnickes also Act. 7.51 c. and doth openly reprove the blindnesse of the unhappy Jewes but how the word is in God no Christian man must be too curious to search those things which be spoken of God which be so attemperate unto our capacity that they be spoken upon some likenesse rather then according to any exact property of Gods Nature and Essence And because we should not thinke of God to be onely but an Essence but as a most high and excellent Essence dissevered and separated from all others as well spirits as bodies he is called Jehova Ebrew word as existent every where in all places and making Greeke preserving and governing all things and is called God which is piercing and passing thorow and to signifie that he is the same to the end of the world as the minde is in man they called him the Mind the Word and the Spirit to give us to understand that the same infinite Essence in Godhead doth not altogether rest in it selfe and keepe his vertue goodnesse and wisdome to himselfe alone but rather set it forth and reveale it even as the mind of man cannot be idle but doth expresse in word whatsoever it doth conceive in it selfe by the meane of the spirit which is as it were the Conduit whereby the word is brought forth from the deepe secret parts of the mind Similitude As for example Imagine that God the Father were like as a lively and endlesse Fountaine and his Sonne the Word to be as a River continually flowing out of this Fountaine and that the holy Spirit might be the very moving and flowing out whereby the water floweth out of the compasse of the Fountaine which moving cannot be without the moving of the aire The Word is the Sonne of God Now whereas this Word is called the Sonne of God it is like as if a man should call the River the sonne of the Fountaine and our word that wee doe speake the sonne of the Mind but all this is but by way of accommodation to our weakenesse for no Angel were able to utter nor no man able to understand him if he did only speake of the Nature and Essence of God as it is in it selfe What wee ought to judge of this Word of God no man is able better to set it forth then the holy Scripture did expresse by the Evangelist Saint John where he saith In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word John 1.2 3 4 5. the same was in the beginning with God all things were made by it and without it was made nothing that was made In it was life and the life was the light of men and the light shined in the darkenesse and the darkenesse received it not and a little after Verse 14. and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among uâ— and we saw his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten Sonne of the Father full of Grace and Truth Now touching the Incarnation it is said 1 Joh. 4.3 that the Word was made flesh which is nothing else but the Word was made man now whereas hee saith that the Word was made man of which he said now before that it was God he doth without contradiction say that God was made man or flesh and though the Apostle saith God the Word is made flesh it is not said of the Father neither of the holy Spirit but the Word to be Incarnate not onely for that that he is the Sonne in Godhead and that by him the world was made but for this cause also chiefly because the Word is that Counsell coeternall with God the Father purposed to save man-kinde in whom our Redemption is predestinated even from everlasting in whom also wee
have deliverance from eternall captivity and torment Thirdly seeing Christ Jesus is the matter of the Covenant of grace betweene God and man it doth also most neerely concerne all men to endeavour all meanes possible A most needfull care is to be had of all men and by their eyes of faith to apprehend Christ who is onely to be apprehended by faith and so to receive the forme and impression of his sacred Image whereby they shall be truely interested in the possession of heaven when those that want this shall be rejected of God with this answer Away from me yee wicked for I know you not because yee have not the Image of my Sonne Fourthly seeing the whole matter of the Covenant of grace is fully contained in the words and workes of Jesus Christ and that all things necessary both to a civill and Christian life are contained in the Story of the holy Gospell it behoveth all men to give that sacred Word preheminence and that no man All directions must be conformed to Scripture neither any state or fellowship of men whatsoever presume to decree or ordaine Canons or Statutes Ecclesiasticall or civill which is any way repugnant or may prejudice the directions of Jesus Christ delivered and set forth in the most holy Gospell but as Christ our Prince our Priest and our Prophet hath given us either by doctrine or example Eccle. 18. Reve. 22.18 19 which needfull directions are necessary and of lawfull use either in a Christian Church or State so no Christian Church or State should presume to innovate or alter those directions which Christ our high Priest and great Prince hath left established unto us but in all directions both in Church and State there must be needfull care that every particular have relation to the truth of holy Scripture and be conformed to the example of Christ for whatsoever direction whether it concerne the soule or society if it bee not either necessarily grounded or agreeth with the Word of God is altogether unlawfull in a Christian Church and State How to square every particular action neither can dispensation make it lawfull or tollerable Therefore by the square of the Scriptures all men ought to measure the Lawfulnesse of every action and direction and that whatsoever shall disagree from God and the holy Scriptures may be judged error and intrusion of disorder and therefore of necessity to be spewed out of every Church and State of Christian men The meditation of this doctrine and these duties should make us serious in our Christian care let us not now content our selves to have onely a generall knowledge of Christ Jesus our Redeemer To consider God in his Majesty onely is terrible but let us labour to understand him in his double nature for if we consider him in his divinity as he is God onely it is a terrour to our remembrance but if we consider him in his double nature it gives us hope and alacrity for the Majesty of God is terrible to sinfull man but his mercy is comfortable and supporteth the falling spirits of our soules which would faint and die in despaire if the grace of God did not succour and give supply to such extremities therefore as God doth most delight himselfe in the use of his mercy so let us delight our soules most in the holy contemplation of his mercy and as Christ Jesus is the most lively character of his mercy Christ Iesus is the character of Gods mercy so let our cares bee most busie in the meditations of Christ his Gospell is the booke of Gods mercies wee have eyes of faith and can both see and read the stories of mercy let us therefore direct our labours and endeavour our studies in the most happy knowledge of our Saviour Jesus Christ Note and in him wee shall finde all goodnesse and infinite variety of matter in him wee shall finde the cause of our redemption Where to finde the cause of mans redemption wee shall finde it in his will wee shall finde it in his working he did cause our good he did effect it also in his will was the cause in his workes was the effect This godly meditation may kindle a zeale in them that were dead in sinne and provoke holinesse where it is not to see the infinite greatnesse Ier. 4.2 Psal 34.20 the infinite goodnesse of God omniscious of God omnipotent to yield himselfe to such a wonderfull difference of fortune he that had all happinesse in the highest degree breathing unutterable pleasure in the bosome of his Father and he that made the heavens and the earth should descend from heaven to earth and there assume the forme of wretched man and in that forme worke such righteousnesse as might satisfie God satisfie the Law for the sinne of man and in that forme to bee borne in poverty to live in contempt and die in disgrace and all this to be done by the onely begotten Sonne of God for the good of man a creature that was become apostate a traytor to God a rebell to his lawes and the very cause and actor of his disgrace death and Tragedy O that I had but words to expresse the imaginations of my soule what formes of mercy we may see in our Saviour Jesus what slackenesse what scantinesse We must meditate what we cannot expresse in words nay what foulenesse of desert we finde in our selves his good and our evill are infinite therefore what we cannot expresse in words or workes let us devise it in our thoughts let us learne to believe and know our Saviour to bee infinite good though we cannot expresse his infinite goodnesse what we can doe to his glory let us by all meanes endeavour it what wee cannot doe our selves let us perswade others let us endeavour any thing that may adde any thing to the honour of our Saviour for in gaining his favour we shall have the fulnesse of all favour and in losing his favour we have naught but tribulation and misery he is the seale of the covenant of grace betweene God and as if wee want our seale wee shall want our assurance and so lose the favour of God A dangerous forfeit and forfeit our eternall estate in Heaven Therefore let us esteeme the favour of our Saviour before all things let us esteeme all things nothing in respect of him if he subscribe not to our pardon wee are but dead the Law hath cast us without him there is no grace no hope of favour no hope of pardon let us direct our eyes of faith unto him upon the bended knees of our heart and when we have found him whom our soule loveth let us resort to him in daily prayer winne his favour by endeavour in faithfull and carefull serving him and make him the sole end of our desires who hath wrought who hath effected our salvation Thus by the assistance of his grace I purpose to doe in my owne particular
according to the old man is corrupt Ephes 4.22 according to the lusts of errours therefore beseech God that he will â—â—â—per and moderate it in us by the grace of his holy Spirit and grant that wee swerve not from the right marke the truth of his righteousnesse and the holy majesty of the mysteries of God that be so miraculous and wonderfull effect in us all these things O blessed Trinity in Unity thou that hast conferred such grace upon us in Baptisme give us also the grace to persevere in a godly course according to thy testimonies Of the Lords Supper and Institution of Christ 1 Cor. 11.23 24. THe Lord Jesus in the night that he was betrayed tooke bread and when hee had given thankes hee brake it and said Take eate this is my body which is broken for you this doe yee in remembrance of mee The summe of these words is the Institution and the use of the Lords Supper which is a witnesse of Gods promises 1 Châ—o 35.4 c. a remembrance of Christs death and a seale of our adoption therefore as the Levites under the Law were bound to prepare their brethâ—â—â— before they came to the passeover so should all men prepare themselves before they presume to come to the supper of the Lord. After he had given thankes hee brake it and gave unto them and said take eate for when he had given than â—s to God then it was sanctified and blessed and lawfull to eate So when wee have served God then it is lawfull for us to use Gods blessings and not before then may wee eate and drinke as Christ did for these things were created to serve them which serve God therefore if thou doest not serve him for them thou incroachest upon Gods blessings and stealest his creatures which are no more thine then thou art his This doctrine intendeth not the exclusion of worldlings from tithe to their goods as usurpers over the creatures Math. 26.26 27 Gen. 27 c. for the good God created all things for good men as the divels possessions are reserved for evill men It followeth This is my body here is the fruit of his thankes-giving before hee prayed that the Bread and Wine might bee blessed and they were blessed As Isaacks blessing shewed it selfe upon Iacob whom he blessed so Christ his blessing appeareth streight upon these mysteries because his blessing did sanctifie the Sacrament and infuseth vertue into it and ever since hath hee given this blessing its efficacy and sanctified it unto us as well as it did to the Apostles for before it could not be said this is my body Now you shall see by what a mysticall resemblance Christ is united unto us First Rom. 2.17 as Christ in the supper tooke Bread to feed us so in his birth he tooke our flesh upon him to save us Secondly as Christ when hee had taken the bread blessed it to make it a spirituall food unto us so Christ when hee had taken our flesh poured forth his most rich and precious graces into it to make it foode of life eternall unto us This is my body is a figurative speech Confutation of the Papists and must not be construed I tâ—rally then where are the Papists which say that after the words of consecration the Bread and Wine are transubstantiated into the very Body and Blood 〈◊〉 Christ really and substantially they may aswell prove that Christ is a doore Iohn 10.7 9. Iohn 15.1 because he saith I am the doore or a Vine because he saith I am a Vine for his sayings are like figurative speeches and must not be construed literally This is my body Math. 26.26 1 Cor. 11.23 24 Now may we see whether these words doe prove that the Bread is turned into Christs body Paul saith Iesus tooke bread well then yet it is bread when he had taken it then he blessed it what did hee blesse the bread which hee tooke well then yet it is bread when hee had blessed it then hee brake it what did hee breake the bread which he blessed well then yet it is bread when he had broken it then he gave it what did he give the bread which he brake well then yet it is bread when that hee gave it they did eate it what did they eate the bread which he gave them well then yet it is bread when they did eate it then hee said This is my body what did hee call his body the bread which he gave which they did eate well then yet it is bread if it be bread all this while when hee did take it and blessed it and brake it and gave it and they did eate it Math. 22 34. when then is it turned into his body here they stand like the Saduces as mute as fishes now see whether their argument hath either face or force Againe it is not onely wee that say it is bread and wine Math. 26 27 28 29. Mark 14.25 after consecration but Christ himselfe doth call it bread and wine after he had given it as he did before and in Marke saith I will drinke no more of the fruit of the Vine Here Christ saith that it was the fruit of the Vine which hee dranke but his blood is not the fruit of the Vine therefore hee dranke wine and not blood For if Christs body were offered in the Sacrament then were it no Sacrament but a Sacrifice which two differeth as much as giving and taking for in a sacrifice we give and in a Sacrament we receive and therefore wee say our Sacrament Eph. 3.16.17 and Christs Sacrifice as Christ dwelleth in us so he is eaten of us but he dwelleth in us onely by faith therefore he is eaten by faith onely Againe none can be saved without the communion of the body of Christ but if all should communicate with it corporally then neither infants nor the Patriarks our Fathers nor any of the Prophets should bee saved because they received not so Iohn 3.36 for Christ was not then come in the flesh Saint Iohn saith He that believeth in the Sonne shall be saved The Cup is called the new Testament because it signifyeth the New Testament so the Bread and Wine are called Christs body because they signifie Christs body no more is the Lambe the Passeover though Christ called it the Passover nor Circumcision is not the Covenant though God called it the Covenant that Baptisme is not the Regeneration He calleth the signe the thing which it signifieth though it bee called Regeneration neither is the Cup the New Testament though Christ called it the New Testament the Sacrament is the signe which presents the thing signified when this Sacrament was instituted and Christ said This is my body he had not then a glorified body therefore it is demanded whether they received a mortall or glorified body Demand of the Papist because one of these two bodies they must needs receive if
unto as many as shall receive the same according to Christs institution Joh. 1.16 that hee will according to his promise by the vertue of his crucified body and blood as verily feed our soules to eternall life as our bodies are by bread and wine nourished to this temporall life and to this end Christ in the action of the Sacrament really giveth his body and blood to every faithfull receiver 1 Cor. 11.24 2.5 Christ is verily present in the Sacrament by a double union whereof the first is spirituall twixt Christ and the worthy receiver the second is sacramentall twixt the body and blood of Christ and the outward signes in the sacrament if you looke to the things that are united this union is essentiall if to the truth of this union it is reall if to the manner how it is wrought it is spirituall it is not our faith that makes the body and blood of Christ to be present in the Sacrament but the spirit of Christ dwelling in him and us Note our faith doth but receive and apply unto our soules those heavenly graces which are offered in the Sacrament the other being the sacramentall union is not a physicall or locall The Word and the Sacrament are the two briefly wherewith our Mother the Church doth nourish us but a spirituall conjunction of the earthly signes which are bread and wine with the heavenly grace which is the body and blood of Christ in the act of receiving as if by a mutuall relation they were but one and the same thing hence it is that in the same instant of time that the worthy receiver eateth with his mouth the bread and wine of the Lord hee eateth also with the mouth of faith the very body and blood of Christ not that Christ is brought downe from heaven to the Sacrament but that the holy Spirit by the Sacrament lifts up his minde unto Christ not by any locall mutation but by a devout affection so that in the holy contemplation of faith hee is at that present with Christ and Christ with him and thus believing and meditating how Christ his body was crucified and his pretious blood shed for the remission of his sins and the reconciliation of his soule unto God his soule is hereby more effectually fed in the assurance of eternall life than bread and wine can nourish his body to this temporall life There must be therefore of necessity in the Sacrament both the outward signes to be visibly seene with the eye of the body and the body and blood of Christ to be spiritually discerned with the eye of faith But the forme how the holy Ghost makes the body of Christ being absent from us in place to be present with us by union Ephes 5.32 Saint Paul termes a great mystery such as indeed our understanding cannot worthily comprehend The sacramentall bread and wine therefore are not bare signifying signes but such as therewith Christ doth indeed exhibit and give to every worthy receiver not onely his divine vertue and efficacy but also his very body and blood as verily as hee gave to his Disciples the holy Ghost by the signe of his sacred breath Joh. 20.22 or health to the diseased by the Word of his mouth Mar. 6.56 or touch of his hand or garment and the apprehension by faith is more forcible than the exquisite comprehension of sense or reason To conclude this point this holy Sacrament is that blessed bread which being eaten Luk. 24.30.31 opened the eyes of the Emmauites that they knew Christ 1 Cor. 12.13 this is that Lordly cup by which wee are made to drinke into one spirit this is that rocke flowing with hony 1 Sam. 14.27 that reviveth the fainting spirits of every true Jonathan that tasts it with the mouth of faith Judg. 7.13 this is that barly loafe which tumbling from above strikes downe the tents of the Midianits of infernall darknesse Eliahs angelicall Cake and water 1 King 1â— 7 8. Psal 78.25 26. preserved him forty daies in Mount Horeb and Manna Angels food fed the Israelites forty yeeres in the wildernesse Exod. 16.15 Joh. 6.32 35.49.50 51.58 but this is that true bread of life and heavenly Manna which if wee shall duely eate will nourish our soules to eternall life and doth binde all Christians as it were by an oath of fidelity to serve the one onely true God Deut. 8.19 and to admit no other propitiatory sacrifice for sins but that one reall sacrifice which by his death Christ once offered up for all true believers Hebr. 9. and by which hee finished the sacrifices of the Law and effected eternall redemption and righteousnesse for all them that faithfully believe in him and so to remaine for ever a publike marke of profession to distinguish Christians from all sects and false Religions and seeing that in the Masse there is a strange christ adored not he that was born of the Virgin Mary but one that is made of a waâ—er cake and that the offering up of this breaden God is thrust upon the Church as a propitiatory sacrifice for the quicke and the dead therefore all true Christians that have sufficient information and have means to escape invincible ignorance are to account the pretensed sacrifice of the masse Note as derogatory to the al-sufficient world saving merits of Christs death and passion for by receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper we all sweare that all reall sacrifices are ended by our Lords death and that his body blood crucified and shed for us is the perpetuall food and nourishment of our soule The bread of the Lord is given by the Minister but the bread which is the Lord is given by Christ himselfe Therefore when thou takest the bread at the Ministers hand to eate it then ronze up thy soule to apprehend Christ by a lively faith and to apply his merits to heale thy miseries Note and as thou eatest the bread imagine that thou seest Christ hanging upon the Crosse and by his unspeakeable torments fully satisfying Gods Justice for thy sinnes Iohn 19. and strive as verily to be partaker of the spirituall grace as of the Elementall signes for the truth is not absent from the signe Neither doth Christ deceive when he saith this is my body but hee giveth himselfe truely and indeed to every soule that spiritually receives him by faith For as ours is the same supper which Christ administred to his Disciples so is the same Christ verily present at his owne Supper not by any papall transubstantiation but by a Sacramentall participation whereby he doth truely feed the faithfull unto eternall life not by comming downe from heaven unto thee but by lifting thy heart unto Heaven The duty of the redeemer where hee sitteth at the right hand of God And when thou seest the wine brought unto thee apart from the bread then remember that the blood of
holy and heavenly minded towards God we must be friendly and loving to our neighbours slow in taking advantages renewing or revenging of wrongs wee must be humble and lowly in our owne eyes meeke and sober in all our actions and because herein are exhibited and offered things of such wonderfull valew and price to the worthy receivers wee must bee cleansed of our spirituall leprosie before wee presume to communicate in the company of Saints We must therefore assure our selves that we are in the number of those to whom these holy things doe appertaine for whosoever is prophane in his person and an unsanctified creature let him forbeare to come to this holy banquet till he have first used the meanes of better assurance by repentance for his sinnes and amendment of his corrupt and sinnefull life let him often call upon God by zealous and faithfull prayers for the remission of his omissions and transgressions let him earnestly crave the assistance of his holy spirit to assist him in the mortifying and beating downe of sinne and that his heart and conscience may be sanctified and made fit for so holy an exercise When he is thus cleansed let him shew himselfe to the Priest his Pastour and let him take knowledge by his outward confession of his inward contrition And then in all reverence and in the feare of God let him come to this holy Table let him eate the body and drinke the blood of that Lambe that taketh away the sinnes of all penitent sinners and will present him pure unto the Lord for the Lords eye is pure and can abide no wickednesse the Sacrament is holy touch it not rashly if thou have not the wedding garment of sincerity come not thereto Math. 22.11 12 13. for the Lord will finde thee out and thrust thee forth out of his presence among the unbeleevers whose portion shall bee with the divell and his angels Let us therefore search and examine our waies let us lift up our hands with our hearts unto God and feed on this holy mystery 1 Cor. 11.25 26 the life of our soules in remembrance that Christ died for us untill his second comming Blesse me O Lord so that my sins may wholly be remitted by thy blood my conscience sanctified by thy Word my mind enlightened by thy Truth my heart guided by thy Spirit and my will in all things subdued to thy blessed Will and pleasure Blesse mee with all graces which I want and increase in mee those good gifts which thou hast already bestowed upon mee Of the Ordinance of Christ concerning the translation of the Sabbath THe Primitive Church had farre greater reason to celebrate Sunday in memory of Christs resurrection then to keepe the Sabbath because that by his resurrection from the dead Isay 65.17 66.12.13 there is wrought a new spirituall creation of the world without which all the sonnes of Adam had beene turned to everlasting perdition and destruction and so all the workes of the first creation had ministred no consolation unto us In respect of this new spirituall creation 2 Cor. 5.17 18. Rev. 21.1 Gal. 6.15 1 Pet. 2.10 Ephes 4.24 Colos 3.10 Matth. 26.28 2 Pet. 3.13 Isay 66.12.13 Chro 4.9 c. the Scripture saith that old things are passed away and all things are become new new creatures new people new men new knowledge new Testament new Commandements new Heaven new Earth and therefore there is in stead of the old a new holy day to honour and praise our Redeemer and to meditate upon the workes of our redemption and to shew the new change fo the old Testament because that on this day Christ rested from all the sufferings of his passion and finished the glorious worke of our redemption If the finishing of the worke of the first creation whereby God mightily manifested himselfe unto his creatures deserved a Sabbath for to solemnize the memoriall of so great a work Esay 58.13 to the honour of the worker and therefore God calls it mine holy day much more doth the new creation of the world effected by the resurrection of Christ whereby he mightily declared himselfe to be the Sonne of God Rom. 1.3 4. deserve an holy festivall for the perpetuall commemoration thereof to the honour of Christ and therefore most worthily called the Lords day Apoc. 1.10 for as the deliverance out of the captivity of Babylon being greater tooke away the name from the deliverance out of the bondage of Egypt Jer. 23.7 8. 16.13 so the day whereon Christ finished the redemption of the world did more justly deserve to be kept holy than that day wherein God ceased from creating the world Gen. 2.2 as therefore in the creation the first day wherein it was finished was consecrated for a Sabbath Lev. 23.32 Neh. 13.19 so in processe of time after our redemption the first day wherein it was perfected was dedicated to a holy rest The Jewes kept their Sabbath on the last day of the week beginning it with the night when God rested from finishing the worke of his creation but Christians honour the Lord better on the first day of the weeke when the Lord arose They kept their Sabbath in remembrance of the worlds creation but Christians celebrate it in memoriall of the worlds redemption Matth. 28 1. Acts 20.7 2.46 yea the Lords day being the first day of the creation and redemption puts us in minde both of the making of the old world and redeeming of the new world Many godly Writers doe record many memorable things which were done upon the first day of the weeke as so many types that the chiefe worship of God should under the new Testament be celebrated upon this day Exod. 31. as that on this day the cloud of Gods Majesty first sate upon his people Aaron and his children first executed their Priest-hood God first solemnely blessed his people the princes of his people first offered publikely unto God the first day wherein fire descended from heaven the first of the world of the yeere of the moneth of the weeke all shadowing that it should be the first and chiefe holy day of the new Testament Gen. 17.12 and circumcision being commanded on the eighth day which was foreseene by the holy Fathers and Prophets to be a type of the Lords day Esay 58.13 that the Sabbath should cease and give place to the eight or first day of the weeke If this mysterie were so clearely seene by the Fathers and Prophets under the shadowes of the old Testament 2 Cor. 4.4 surely the God of this world hath deepely blinded their mindes who cannot see the truth thereof under the cleere shining light of the Gospel This change of the Sabbath under the new Testament was nothing but a fulfilling of that which was solemnly prefigured and fore-prophesied under the old 1 Cor. 14.36 37 therefore all true Christians according to the Lords minde and Commandement
and the direction of the holy Ghost should keepe the holy day upon that Lords day or Sunday Apoc 1.9.10.11 agreeable to the practise of the ancient Church and worthily solemnize it on the first day of the weeke in memoriall of the worlds redemption to the honour and praise of the Lord Jesus who rose from death to life upon that day This should stirre up all Christians to a thankfull remembrance of their redemption by Christ his resurrection from the dead Hebr. 2.5 2.11 5.9 And note that with the day the blessing of the day is likewise translated to the Lords day because all the sanctification belonging to this new world is in Christ and from and by him conveyed to Christians and because there cannot come a greater motive or cause then the new creation of the world therefore the worship of God is fitler solemnized on this day then on any other The holy Sunday is the Lords market day for the weeks provision Esa 55.1 2 3. wherein he will have us to come unto him and buy of him without gold or silver the bread of Angels and water of life the wine of the Sacraments and the milk of the Word to feed our soules tried gold to inrich our faith Apoc. 3.18 Gen. 2.2 3. Exo. 20.10 11. precious eye salve to heale our spirituall blindnesse and the white rayment of Christs righteousnesse to cover our filthy nakednesse Of Christs Ascension MEditate upon thy Saviours ascension by a holy contemplation Joh. 20.29 thou faithfull soule for Christ withdrew his visible presence from the faithfull to exercise their faith by holy contemplation and blessed are they that see not Mat. 6.21 Act. 8.21 Colos 3.2 and yet believe where our treasure is there let our heart be also Christ our treasure is in heaven let our hearts therefore be set upon those things that are heavenly and meditate upon those things that be above let us put our confidence in the pledge of the holy Spirit which the Lord left unto us at his departure let us put our confidence in the body and blood of Christ which wee receive in the mysterie of the holy Sacrament and let us believe that our bodies which are filled with this incorruptible food shall at length be raised up againe and that which we now believe in faith wee shall then see with our eyes and our hope wee have now in Christ shall then be reall fruition to our soules the Lord is present unto us here but in part Colos 3.4 but in the mansion of his heavenly kingdome Act. 1.9.10.11 12. we shall behold him in his glory and know him as hee is which is our life our Saviour ascended up from the Mount of Olives the Olive is the signe of peace and joy therefore not without great cause hee ascended up from Mount Olivet because by his passion and holy sufferings he hath purchased peace and tranquillity for amazed and terrified consciences not without cause did hee ascend up from the Mount Olivet for the court of heaven exceedingly rejoyce to receive him the Mount doth not onely put us in minde but doth also call and invite us to heavenly things and seeing we cannot follow him with the feete of our body let us follow him with the feete of our holy desires The disciples stood lifting up their eyes Vers 11. and looking towards Heaven so let all the true Disciples of Christ lift up the eyes of their heart to behold and desire heavenly things Sweet Jesus what a blessed and glorious alteration followed thy passion Oh happy and sodaine change how didst thou suffer on Mount Calvary for our sinnes and how doe I now behold thee in the Mount of Olives there thou wast alone here thou art accompanied with many thousands of Angels there thou didst ascend up to the Crosse in disgrace Luke 24.52 here thou didst ascend up into Heaven in a cloud and in glory there wast thou crucified betweene thieves here thou dost rejoyce amongst the company of Angels and Saints there thou wast nayled to the Crosse as a condemned man here thou art at liberty and dost deliver those that were condemned Eph. 5.23 30 there suffering and dying here rejoycing and triumphing Christ is our head and the Saviour of the body we are his members Rejoyce therefore and bee glad thou faithfull soule for though our sinnes doe hinder us yet the communion of nature doth not repell us where the head is there shall the members be also our head is in heaven therefore the members have just and great cause to hope for entrance there not onely so but they are assured already that they have possession there Christ descended from Heaven to redeeme us and againe hee ascended up into heaven to glorifie us unto us was he borne Note for us did he suffer and for us did he ascend our charity is confirmed by Christs passion our faith by Christs resurrection and our hope by Christ ascension Let us strive to follow Christ our Bride-groome not onely with our ardent desire but also with our good workes Acts 21.27 Acts 1.10 for nothing that is defiled shall enter into this heavenly City The Angels that came from heavenly Ierusalem appeared in white robes by purity and innocency is figured that no pride can ascend with the Doctour of humility nor no malice with the Authour of goodnesse with the lover of peace there ascends no discord and with the sonne of the Virgin there ascends no uncleannesse after the parent of vertue there ascend no vices and after the just person there ascends no sinnes Therefore he that desires to see God face to face let him so live here in this world as in his sight and hee that hope for celestiall things let him contemne terrestriall things Our Saviour Christ promised unto his Apostles that after his departure he will send unto them from his father a comforter John 14.26 15.26 Luke 24.47 Vers 47. John 24.17 the holy Ghost the Spirit of truth to testifie of him and to teach them all things and to endue them with power to preach repentance and remission of sinnes in his name among all Nations saying Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you Therefore let not our hearts be troubled neither let us feare but that our Saviour which redeemed us will also through his merits and mediation glorifie us in Heaven O sweet Jesus draw our hearts unto thee whether thou art gone before and that in the meane time wee may immitate thy goodnesse mercy truth and patience and follow thee in the same Amen Of the holy Ghost OUr Lord Jesus ascending up into the Heavens and entring into his glory Acts 2.4 Vers 1. Exod. 10.11 sent the holy Ghost upon the Apostles on the day of Penticost as in the old Testament when God proclaimed the Law in Mount Sinai he came downe unto Moses So when the Gospell was
both caused and continued in us by the secret power of God our selves being meerly passive and moved to divine exercise by the onely direction of the holy Ghost and therefore that we doe ascribe the honour of every good action to God by whom it is caused and utterly disgrace our selves in our owne estimation because Gods grace doth leade every man to every particular action of goodnesse Note Againe seeing that by faith in Christ God doth both cancell and abolish our sinnes and repute us righteous in his presence it doth remember all men the admirable degree of Gods favour and the powerfull operation of faith First Gods favour towards us hee being pleased to forgive us our sins and deserts of condemnation and to give and impute the most absolute righteousnesse of his deare Sonne Christ to all men upon this easie condition of faith that such who have a true faith to apprehend him shall be accepted in his favour as sonnes and shall appeare in the presence of God as equally righteous as if themselves had actually performed righteousnesse in their owne particular persons Secondly Heb. 11.1 c. wee are taught the powerfull operation of true faith that it is able to enter heaven and to apprehend and apply Christ and his righteousnesse to reconcile the favour of God unto us and to satisfie his displeasure to wash off the leprosie and spots of our sins and to put on us the garment of righteousnesse even Jesus Christ the Sonne of God by whom and through whom wee are justified in the fight of God and by whom also wee shall be saved Let us therefore carefully endeavour our selves in a constant exercise of all godly actions not that we repose our justification in the vertue or merit of our owne workes but that by the testimony of our good works we may approve our selves to be faithfull and that our faith is more than a common or a generall historicall faith even a living and a saving faith which is and must be the onely meanes of our apprehending Christ who is the all-sufficient and onely matter of our justification and let this be the onely glory and pride of our well-doing that this witnesse of workes shall gaine us the reputation of Gods servants and that Gods faithfull children here on earth shall esteeme and repute us to be of their fellow-brethren then which let us never desire a greater cause of boasting and this judgement of good men must needs rise from the testimony of good workes because there is an inevitable necessity of consequence and necessary dependence betweene faith and workes they being as inseparable as the heat from the fire and as necessarily depending as the body and the soule let this provoke us to a zealous forwardnesse of all godly actions because thereby we shall conclude the assurance of our justifying faith and thereby satisfie the desire of our owne soules and that doubt which otherwise might justly be had of us in the common opinion of men From this argument must needs follow this conclusion that seeing we have the fruits of faith Note good works therefore we have also the cause of workes true faith and that therefore this faith thus working is a tree of Gods owne planting this is that use this is that comfort and consolation which wee shall understand and find in the nature of our best deserving workes thus let us esteeme them and but thus let us therefore avoid and abolish that dangerous opinion of meriting by workes because it is farre better to want honour then to force it from God by violence nay let us rather disgrace our selves then to dis-inable our Saviour Jesus Christ for if righteousnesse be from our selves it is not onely from him and then would follow that absurd and blasphemous conclusion that he is not the onely Saviour neither hath perfected the worke of mans salvation let us therefore doe all the good we can Note but let us repute our deeds though never so good to be the effect and not the cause of goodnesse in us let us also confidently hold that nothing is able to merit salvation but onely the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ let us therefore utterly disclaime our selves and our owne power which is nothing but weaknesse and wholly ascribe all vertue and all power to our Saviour Christ for it is safer to give him honour then to take it from him and it will farre better become our Christian modesty to acknowledge our weakenesse and infirmities then proudly to boast and advance our selves above our deserts and worthinesse If therefore God by the moving of his holy Spirit doe incline our hearts unto godlinesse hee will also give us grace to continue in the same and give us a desire and power in godly exercise which when it makes us grow plentifull in the demonstration of holinesse let us ascribe the glory thereof unto God to whom it is due onely and onely acknowledge our selves to be that instrument whereby his holy hand of grace is pleased to work with to our salvation Of Faith FAith is the ground the foundation and the pillar of the truth 1 Tim. 3. and it is the constant assent of the heart unto those things which bee taught and promised by the word of God for to believe is to assent unto the same which we doe heare it is also a certaine and sure perswasion of the heart What it is to believe that there is a God whereby wee doe believe certaine things of God as that there is a God and that there is but one and none other besides him that hee is omnipotent the creator of heaven and earth that he is just doing good to the righteous and punishing the wicked that he is good gentle and mercifull to them that doe amend their sinfull life that he is true and keepeth promise that he is able to performe what hee hath promised that hee is everlasting and many other things that bee reported of him in holy Scriptures and to beleeve also of Christ that hee is the onely begotten Sonne of God the word of God made flesh true God and true man our onely Lord redeemer Saviour and Mediatour hee was crucified dead buried and rose againe taken up into Heaven touching his manhood and that he sitteth at the right hand of the father and that he shall come at the end of the world to judge the quicke and the dead and many other things set forth in the Evangelists and Apostles and to believe of the holy Spirit that he is of the same Godhead equall with the Father and the Sonne that he is of the light giver of the minds the comforter teacher reliever renewer sanctifier and governour of the elect of God this maketh a great matter to the salvation of man how it be grounded in their hearts Secondly To believe God that we doe believe God also that is to credit and to believe his word as the word of
here in this world wherewith he seeth us apt to be intangled he doth as it were fetter us with the shackles of adversity that we should not have scope to daunce after the Musicke and sweet syrens tunes of this worlds happinesse which so enchaunteth men of liberty and lovers thereof that they are thereby led as it were by a golden line to the everlasting pit but for the truely penitent and faithfull believer he hath prepared and provided an endlesse rich and surpassing Diadem of absolute glory Rom. 8.17 18. a beautifull City the Kingdome of joy the Kingdome of eternall consolation If with patience they beare this moment of tryall and fatherly light yoake though to flesh and blood most sharpe and unsavory yet will hee mixe them with spirituall sweetnesse and inward consolation God dealeth most providently for his children and turneth even their teares into great joy and their lamentations into songs of melody and although his working seemes strange unto flesh and blood and hard measure to be crossed yet God seeth it necessary for us therefore take it not grievously to fall into troubles to sustaine miseries to endure crosses and to abide afflictions neither thinke it strange for as the Apostle Saint James saith James 5. it hath beene the portion of Gods dearest children from the beginning and will be for ever found true Psal 91.14 c that Great are the troubles of the righteous and as true it is that the Lord will delivers them out of all Dan. 3. What greater danger could there be then to be in the firie furnace as was Sidrach Misach and Abednego yet did the Lord so qualifie the force of the fire mortifying as it were the nature thereof that it nothing annoyed them yet it did consume the ministers of their execution What greater perill could there be then to be in the Lyons denne with Daniel Dan. 6.16 24. yet the Lord shut up the mouthes of the Lyons that they could not hurt him but yet they devoured his accusers It is much to be in misery in want in sicknesse 1 King 19. Judg. 15.18 Luk. 16.20 21. and full of sores with Job to be in hunger with Elias to thirst with Samson poore sore and naked with Lazarus imprisoned and accused with Joseph persecuted banished and in exile with David with Jeremy with Peter Gen. 3.9 1 Sam. 21.22 27. Acts 14.19 to be stoned with Paul and infinite others yet did the Lord deliver them out of all their troubles such is the force of a sound confidence and trust in the Almighty God who in mercy worketh by outward crosses the inward comfort of his children and sheweth compassion alwaies upon them according to the multitude of his mercies And as sin is the root from whence springeth all our afflictions crosses miseries and calamities both inward and outward and our offences is the cause of Gods displeasure against us and God in his displeasure powreth forth both crosses and curses upon sinners Temporary to the elect and eternall to the reprobate therfore it behooveth every man carefully to consider the cause of his troubles whether hee be falne into the same by his owne riot wanton lascivious or licencious life and by his ungodly conversation and neglect of the feare of God for which things sake Ephes 5.6 Col. 3.6 the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience and he powreth out of the cup of his indignation upon them either in judgement to their condemnation The reprobate cannot breath one thought of repentance and so to be perpetuall or else to recall and reclame them from their wicked waies that they may be saved and so to live for ever Therefore let every man acknowledge and confesse their sins unto God be truly penitent and crave pardon for them Esay 49.8 and fall downe before him in hearty prayer and he will heare them grant their requests and deliver them out of all their troubles and afflictions and give them the reward of everlasting life for we cannot be so ready to come unto God by prayers God accepteth of our desires in stead of performance but he is as ready to meete our petitions and in a most fatherly loving manner hee imbraces us and graciously accepteth of our humble desires so that the godly men have no cause to faint undet the burthen of their miseries but that they may thereby the rather gather unto themselves continually more and more strength through the benefit and supply of Gods continuall inward succour and comfort for even their adversities their bitter afflictions and their miserable calamities shall all turne to their blisse Psalm 32. and perpetuall commodity Great plagues remain for the ungodly but whose putteth his trust in the Lord mercy imbraceth him on every side Generall Rules directing a Christian in a godly life EVery day thou drawest neerer to thy death judgement and eternity therefore thinke every day how thou mayest be able to stand in that most strict and severe judgement of God and so live for ever keepe therefore diligent watch over all thy thoughts words and actions Eccles 12.13 14. Ephes 4.2 3. because hereafter thou must give an exact account for them at the last day of judgement whether it be good or evill be carefull to suppresse every sinne in the first motion before it be ripe in thee let sinne be to thy heart a stranger 1 Sam. 12.3 4. not a home-dweller take heed of falling oft into one and the same sin lest the custome of sinning take away the conscience of sinne and then shalt thou waxe so impudently wicked that thou wilt neither feare God nor reverence men which to avoid thinke every evening that thou shalt dye that night and thinke every morning that thou shalt dye that day doe not therefore deferre thy conversion and thy good workes till to morrow for to morrow is uncertaine but death is most certaine and every day hangs over thy head nothing is more contrary to godlinesse then delay If therefore thou contemnest the inward calling of the holy Spirit Ecclesiast 18.22 c. thou shalt never attaine to true conversion Deferre not therefore thy conversion and good workes till thy old age but offer unto God the flowre of thy youth for no age is fitter for Gods service then youth which flourisheth in strength both of body and mind and as thou tenderest the salvation of thy soule live not in any wilfull filthinesse for true faith and purpose of sinning can never stand together approve thy selfe to be a true servant of Christ and study alwaies to walke in the way of the Lord and thinke of the worlds vanity to contemne it of death to expect it of judgement to avoid it of hell to escape it and of heaven to desire it consider in every thing the end before thou dost attempt the action let thy conscience deterre thee to eschew every knowne sin
Seeke the Lord while hee may be found and call upon him while he is nigh and let the ungodly man forsake his owne waies and the unrighteous his own imaginations and turne againe unto the Lord so shall he be mercifull unto him and to our God for he is very ready to forgive The Lord alloweth the righteous Psal 11.6 7. but the ungodly and him that delighteth in wickednesse doth his soule abhorre and upon the ungodly he shall raine snares fire and brimstone storme and tempest and this shall be their portion to drinke But if that people Jerem 18.8 against whom I have thus devised convert from their wickednesse I will repent of the plague that I devised to bring upon them For mercy and wrath is with him Eccles 16 11. hee is both mighty to forgive and to powre out displeasure like as his mercy is great even so is his punishment also and he judgeth a man according to his works Therefore feare the Lord 1 Sam. 12.24 25. and serve him in the truth and with all your hearts and consider what great things hee hath done for you but if yee doe wickedly then shall you perish O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse Psal 107.31 43. and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men who so is wise will ponder these things and they shall understand the loving kindnesse of the Lord. But who so despiseth wisedome and nurture Wisd 3.11 is unhappy and as for the hope of such it is but vaine their labours unfruitfull and their workes unprofitable Blessed be the Lord God of Israel Psal 106.46 from everlasting and world without end and let all the people say Amen THE SECOND PART OF THE SOVLES PROGRESSE Leading the way to the Celestiall CANAAN or Heavenly JERUSALEM A divine Direction in the way of Life Declaring the Order and Causes of mans happinesse attained by the imputation of the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ our Salvation Of the New Covenant of the Gospell or the Covenant of Grace THe whole Scripture of the Bible is divided into two Testaments The Gospel the Old and the New which Bookes be of divers natures some Legall some Historicall some Sapientiall and some Propheticall The Old teacheth by Figures Shadowes and Ceremonies Exod. 20. that the Law was given terribly in lightning and thundring to induce the people thereby to the observance thereof by feare The New Testament all Mercy or the Covenant of Grace came in more gloriously with the gentle name of the Gospell and good tidings to induce the people to the observation thereof by love The Story of the Bible from the first beginning to the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ doth for the most part declare the miserable condition of man-kind how hee hath falne from the innocency of his nature which God gave him in his first creation and how he hath continued in sin and the curse of God for sin having no power in himselfe to satisfie the justice of God How to use and apply the Scriptures or to reconcile himselfe to his favour therefore did God give the Law of the ten Commandements the particulars of his revealed Will both to provoke men to endeavour in the exercise of all godlinesse and also that by the knowledge of the Law men might know their owne defects of nature and the frailnesse thereof and by their humiliation might be prepared and made fit for the mercy of the Gospell for though Jesus Christ Gen. 3.15 12 3. Rom. 1.1 2 3 4 5. the substance of the Gospell was in the counsell of God from all beginnings determined to be the Redeemer of man-kinde being also promised to our first Parents and by whom all the faithfull before his incarnation had the pardon of their sins apprehending by faith the promise of his righteousnesse yet was not this grace declared unto them in such plaine and direct evidence as now it is to us in the preaching of the Gospell Hebr. 9. it being then delivered onely in Shadowes Ceremonies Prophesies and in the mysticall sense of Allegories so that few had capacity and grace rightly to understand them all which difficulties are now vanished in the preaching of the Gospell the Gospell presenting us in most familiar and easie demonstrations the Substance without the Shadowes and the Truth without the Figure withall giving directions and infallible rules not onely to know the meanes of our salvation but how to make it ours to apprehend and apply it to our owne particular comfort The great favour and liberty of the Gospel and this grace doth the Gospell give with such favour as that the necessary doctrines exceed not the understanding of men of meanest capacities but that all that will without respect or exception may reach their hands of faith to the crosse of Christ and freely apprehend the meanes of their salvation which is the Lord Jesus triumphing at the conquest of his death over sin hell and damnation This is a blessed alteration in the state of the world for in the time A happy alteration when the grace of the Gospell was hid in the clouds of the Ceremonies the observers of the ceremoniall Law did seldome understand the mysticall sense of the Ceremony which did alwaies allude to some particular grace in the Gospell Therefore The ceremonies of the Law did allude to the grace of the Gospel though God was pleased to accept of their carefull endeavours in the religious observing the Ceremony which indeed was but a Figure of the Truth included in the Ceremony yet they wanted a great part of that spirituall comfort which wee have in the observing the Covenant of grace the Gospell the grace of God appearing to them Tit. 2.11 c. as God himselfe did to the Israelites their fathers at the delivering of the Law in clouds in fire in smoke and thunders Exod. 19.16 but to us he doth appeare more familiarly by Jesus Christ his Sonne the most lively representment of himselfe assuming our nature and conversing with us did wound our sin and healed the wounds sin had made in our soules whose words taught salvation whose actions wrought it This is the difference betwixt the Law and the Gospel What the Law commandeth and what the Gospel the Law commandeth to doe and live if not to die the Gospell all mercy requireth to believe onely and live and this is a wonderfull degree of Gods favour that because wee are not able to keepe the covenants of the Law is pleased therefore to yeeld to our infirmities to alter our obligation and enter new covenant with us the covenant of grace The wonderfull love of God towards us whereby God doth indent with man and binds the justice of the Law in the bonds of his mercy promising salvation to all them that faithfully believe in the merits and mediation of his Sonne Jesus Christ Thus doth